Anomalisa
{4/5} “I love pressing the buttons… It’s so, I don’t know, buttony.”
Anomalisa, released in 2016
Michael is an author who flies into Cincinnati for a day to give a presentation about customer service. He calls up his ex-girlfriend whom he hasn’t seen in 10 years but that doesn’t go well. He has a bit of a problem — everyone he meets looks and sounds like the same person. Then he runs into one person who’s different — Lisa, a woman who’s attending his presentation.
It’s stop-motion animation in a unique style.
The first part of the movie is a bit slow.
Except for the 2 main characters, all the other characters are voiced by the same person. I found this quite strange, but it’s done for a reason.
The story is mostly low key, in the vein of Lost in Translation.
I didn’t like it quite as much as I thought I might, but it’s worth watching. I found the ending a bit too ambiguous for my taste.
Charlie Kaufman, the co-director and writer, is the writer of Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Stars the voices of David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan. Directed by Duke Johnson (the TV show Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole) and Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York).