Stopmotion

Stopmotion follows Ella Blake, a skilled stop-motion animator who has spent years serving as the hands of her famous and harsh mother, Suzanne. After Suzanne suffers a stroke and later dies, Ella moves into an empty flat to finish the old film and start one of her own. A strange girl next door gives her a darker story about a child in the woods and a monster called the Ash Man. Ella keeps making the puppets from wax, meat, dead animals, and human flesh as grief and obsession blur her real life with the film.

The film places women at the center of its creative world, with Ella, Suzanne, Polly, and the young girl shaping the main story. Ella's fight to gain her own voice from a controlling parent creates a mild female independence theme. The film does not turn that struggle into a speech about gender, diversity, or politics. Its main themes remain abuse, grief, artistic control, mental collapse, and the danger of treating suffering as part of great art.