What is Anomalisa? In
a sane world, we’d like to think you’ve learned to trust us enough by now for
us to tell you to go and beg, steal or borrow (or preferably just buy) a copy
of this quite remarkable, quietly-subversive stop-motion black comedy/drama and
make of it what you will. But recent/current events boldly remind us that this
is a far from sane world and in that respect, at least, Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa is a film both in accord with and
yet utterly at odds with the crazy-paving sensibilities of life in the 21st
century.
We should know what
to expect by now from Charlie Kaufman – and also what not to expect. Often regarded as one of the best and boldest of
contemporary screenwriters, Kaufman has more than set out his creative stall in
challenging titles such as Being John
Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation. They’re all demanding and esoteric movies but they
continually reward the effort required by the viewer to get to grips with them,
to wrestle their warped and twisted worlds into something we recognise and feel
comfortable with. Anomalisa –
directed by Kaufman and stop-motion specialist Duke Johnson – is in some ways
the auteur’s most direct and uncomplicated movie, a tale of modern day ennui
and restlessness, of middle-age discontent and desperation, a world of
stultifying sameness and monotonous routine. Realised with
startlingly-accomplished stop motion which quickly doesn’t feel like stop-motion,
Anomalisa is an everyman story for our times, a tale as beautifully uplifting
as it is cautionary and occasionally disconcerting.
David Thewlis
voices English-born customer services expert Michael Stone who travels to
Cincinatti for an overnight stay, promoting his latest book at a local
convention for business delegates. Michael is a troubled man, full of aching
despair and emotional exhaustion. In Michael’s world everyone sounds the same –
men, women and children all speak to Michael in dull, flat male tones (Tom
Noonan provides the voice of virtually all the supporting characters – off-putting
enough in itself). Trapped and alone in his bland, faceless hotel room, Michael
hooks up for a drink with an ex-girlfriend who still lives locally. The
rendezvous doesn’t end well and, back at his hotel, Michael is elated to hear a
different voice, a new voice. This is Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh)
and she’s staying at the hotel with her friend and she’s quite the fan of
Michael’s work. The trio hit the bar for drinks and at the end of the night
Michael invites Lisa back to his room. He’s captivated by her, her insouciance,
the facial scar she tries to hide with her hair, her refreshing lack of
self-awareness. She’s an anomaly in his life so he christens her Anomalisa.
They spend the night together – their intimacy is quite refreshingly awkward
and fumbling – but Michael is troubled by a terrifying dream. In the morning he
resolves to leave his wife and start a new life with Lisa/Anomalisa… until a strange
transformation slowly begins as Michael realises that leaving his old life
won’t be as easy as he might have hoped and that his little anomaly might not
be quite so different after all.
Some might argue
that Anoamlisa isn’t STARBURST material. At first blush
this might just look like the story of a middle-aged man suffering a crisis and
struggling to find his place in the world, and in a sense that’s exactly what
it is. But isn’t that, for example, pretty much exactly what superhero cinema
is all about? Captain America, Superman,
the X-Men and Co. are outsiders, they don’t fit in, they don’t really belong in
the modern world of men. But Anomalisa
is set in the here-and-now of the lumpily mundane and what shapes and defines
the film is the way it tells its story, the faultless animation, the pin-sharp
voice performances, the wonderfully-nuanced script – poignant, funny, dramatic,
disturbing and, perhaps most importantly, open to interpretation entirely
dependent upon the circumstances of the viewer. It’s a film with its own unique
voice and vision, a film which, if you let it into your life, has the genuine
capacity to change that life or at least make you stop and think about it and
the way you live it and the people who share it with you. Anomalisa is a rich, rewarding and important movie, an underrated and undervalued modern classic which
won’t be to everyone’s taste but will remain close to the heart of those who
can embrace it and whom will find some new nuance in it with every viewing.
And, believe us, you’ll watch this more than once. Genuinely outstanding.
Special
Features: Q&A with Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson / Thirteen featurettes
/ TV spot / Photo gallery / Trailer
ANOMALISA / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: CHARLIE KAUFMAN, DUKE JOHNSON /
SCREENPLAY: CHARLIE KAUFMAN / STARRING: DAVID THEWLIS, JENNIFER JASON LEIGH,
TOM NOONAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
a sane world, we’d like to think you’ve learned to trust us enough by now for
us to tell you to go and beg, steal or borrow (or preferably just buy) a copy
of this quite remarkable, quietly-subversive stop-motion black comedy/drama and
make of it what you will. But recent/current events boldly remind us that this
is a far from sane world and in that respect, at least, Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa is a film both in accord with and
yet utterly at odds with the crazy-paving sensibilities of life in the 21st
century.
We should know what
to expect by now from Charlie Kaufman – and also what not to expect. Often regarded as one of the best and boldest of
contemporary screenwriters, Kaufman has more than set out his creative stall in
challenging titles such as Being John
Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation. They’re all demanding and esoteric movies but they
continually reward the effort required by the viewer to get to grips with them,
to wrestle their warped and twisted worlds into something we recognise and feel
comfortable with. Anomalisa –
directed by Kaufman and stop-motion specialist Duke Johnson – is in some ways
the auteur’s most direct and uncomplicated movie, a tale of modern day ennui
and restlessness, of middle-age discontent and desperation, a world of
stultifying sameness and monotonous routine. Realised with
startlingly-accomplished stop motion which quickly doesn’t feel like stop-motion,
Anomalisa is an everyman story for our times, a tale as beautifully uplifting
as it is cautionary and occasionally disconcerting.
David Thewlis
voices English-born customer services expert Michael Stone who travels to
Cincinatti for an overnight stay, promoting his latest book at a local
convention for business delegates. Michael is a troubled man, full of aching
despair and emotional exhaustion. In Michael’s world everyone sounds the same –
men, women and children all speak to Michael in dull, flat male tones (Tom
Noonan provides the voice of virtually all the supporting characters – off-putting
enough in itself). Trapped and alone in his bland, faceless hotel room, Michael
hooks up for a drink with an ex-girlfriend who still lives locally. The
rendezvous doesn’t end well and, back at his hotel, Michael is elated to hear a
different voice, a new voice. This is Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh)
and she’s staying at the hotel with her friend and she’s quite the fan of
Michael’s work. The trio hit the bar for drinks and at the end of the night
Michael invites Lisa back to his room. He’s captivated by her, her insouciance,
the facial scar she tries to hide with her hair, her refreshing lack of
self-awareness. She’s an anomaly in his life so he christens her Anomalisa.
They spend the night together – their intimacy is quite refreshingly awkward
and fumbling – but Michael is troubled by a terrifying dream. In the morning he
resolves to leave his wife and start a new life with Lisa/Anomalisa… until a strange
transformation slowly begins as Michael realises that leaving his old life
won’t be as easy as he might have hoped and that his little anomaly might not
be quite so different after all.
Some might argue
that Anoamlisa isn’t STARBURST material. At first blush
this might just look like the story of a middle-aged man suffering a crisis and
struggling to find his place in the world, and in a sense that’s exactly what
it is. But isn’t that, for example, pretty much exactly what superhero cinema
is all about? Captain America, Superman,
the X-Men and Co. are outsiders, they don’t fit in, they don’t really belong in
the modern world of men. But Anomalisa
is set in the here-and-now of the lumpily mundane and what shapes and defines
the film is the way it tells its story, the faultless animation, the pin-sharp
voice performances, the wonderfully-nuanced script – poignant, funny, dramatic,
disturbing and, perhaps most importantly, open to interpretation entirely
dependent upon the circumstances of the viewer. It’s a film with its own unique
voice and vision, a film which, if you let it into your life, has the genuine
capacity to change that life or at least make you stop and think about it and
the way you live it and the people who share it with you. Anomalisa is a rich, rewarding and important movie, an underrated and undervalued modern classic which
won’t be to everyone’s taste but will remain close to the heart of those who
can embrace it and whom will find some new nuance in it with every viewing.
And, believe us, you’ll watch this more than once. Genuinely outstanding.
Special
Features: Q&A with Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson / Thirteen featurettes
/ TV spot / Photo gallery / Trailer
ANOMALISA / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: CHARLIE KAUFMAN, DUKE JOHNSON /
SCREENPLAY: CHARLIE KAUFMAN / STARRING: DAVID THEWLIS, JENNIFER JASON LEIGH,
TOM NOONAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
