Directed by : Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman
Written by : Charlie Kaufman
Starring : David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan
Release Date : December 30, 2015
Just from the fact that "Anomalisa" is a stop-motion puppet movie, set in primarily one location, but told in a very dramatically mature manner, will either turn off audiences or fascinate them. However if you are familiar with and enjoy the filmmaker behind this film, then you'll likely fall in the latter group. There's no denying that filmmaker Charlie Kaufman has quite an eccentric but also a very humanistic style to his movies, and this is no exception. He usually gives us odd but simple premises, but with layers of emotional complexities.
For this film, David Thewlis is the voice of Michael Stone, who while he is an expert in customer service, he ironically seems unable to deeply interact with other people in a satisfying way. He has that sense of loneliness and disconnection with people and the world that I think a lot of people can relate to, and is likely the biggest emotional pull of the movie. Then he meets Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lisa, who seems to be the only other person that he feels connected to. As it goes though, the theme, and story, are more complicated than it appears to be, and your initial thoughts in the beginning will likely differ by the end.
The puppetry and stop motion work here by animation studio Starburn Industries is phenomenal and is a major highlight of watching this movie. The naturalism of the human puppets, and the generally mundane typical day to day things like taking a shower, ordering for room service, and numerous scenes of making small-talk, are brought to fantastic life here! The puppet work seems like a clever idea to disarm people into feeling like they are watching a kids movie, when it's a very adult film in nature.
While I praise the work done here for "Anomalisa," it did leave me feeling a little depressed and disillusioned, with some very strong opinions about the characters. I really liked the sense of humor of the movie though; and there was a lot of that, so it wasn't all dour and sad.
lovedit ENJOYED IT itsokayitsmehitsterrible
