Anomalisa is a stop motion animated Charlie Kaufman film, and boy is it ever a Charlie Kaufman stop-motion animated film. Based on his sound play (meaning the actors read the parts on stage without performing them), Anomalisa comes to life in a way that would be unique to film, even if it were based on a more traditional stage production.
Michael Stone (David Thewlis) visits Cincinnati for one night to give a seminar. Clearly having a personal crisis from the beginning, Stone explores a past love, and connects with some fans he meets in the hotel. Then it goes all Charlie Kaufman up in here.
The animation allows Kaufman to play with reality in ways that would be more distracting in live-action. It’s consistent in tone with the reality-bending of his live-action films, so it’s just the next level of manipulating cinematic language. At first though, great effort is made to keep the animation simulating mundane reality.
The movements of Michael and all of the characters are subtle and real. Just the way he pinches his nose between his eyes, puts headphones on and fiddles with his iPod, and the procedure of checking into a hotel are uncanny in stop-motion. Attention to detail is also stunning. A closeup shows ice pouring from the ice machine, a cutaway shot that probably wouldn’t even be necessary in a live-action film, but here we linger on it.
Things get weird when Michael calls home and his son sounds way too old. Then his wife sounds like a man. There’s a reason for that. Tom Noonan is playing all the other characters. It’s not just because Tom Noonan is awesome, although that alone would be a perfectly acceptable reason. Kaufman is saying something about all the people in Stone’s life sounding the same. Imagine if all the supporting characters in a live-action movie had the same voice. It might be cool but it would take you out of the reality for sure. In animation we accept that it’s a voiceover process, so we can focus on the substance of the suggestion rather than the process.
Anomalisa is a very adult drama, but there is a sort of Team America factor that the film gets out of the way early. An animation scholar can correct me, but I believe this is the first stop-motion animated dildo ever in a film. All that silliness is to get it out of our system. Yes, we’re looking at naked puppets, so what? By the time Michael meets Emily and Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), they’re having mature adult flirtations, especially when he connects with Lisa. (Spoiler alert: her name is part of the title.)
The film goes far in its depiction of adult relationships, and it completely works. It would be interesting to show someone the second half of the movie out of context and see if it still works. I bet it would, but there is something to indulging any skeptics with a misdirect in the first act.
The Charlie Kaufman touchstones are certain male neuroses and a certain ambiguity with the reality of the film. It resonates just as deeply and the conceit works as powerfully as Synechdoche, New York; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Adaptation. Co-director Duke Johnson and the animators of Starburns Industries proved a fruitful partnership as they matched sensibilities and pulled it off flawlessly.
Image via Starburns Industries
Fred Topel is a veteran journalist since 1999 and has written for CraveOnline since 2006. See Fred on the ground at Sundance, SXSW, Telluride or in Los Angeles and follow him on Twitter @FredTopel, Instagram @Ftopel.
