Anomalisa (2015)

What a waste of my time!!!

Purely Joyful Movie!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

OK, first about the play with the words: Anomalisa = Anomalia + Lisa, but there is another jungian reference here: ANIMA. Anima is the image of the ideal woman in every man's subcosciousness. Whenever we meet even the tiniest fragment of Anima in a real-life woman, we feel an immediate attraction, whether it is a gesture, or the sound of her voice... However, when we realize that the woman is still not Anima, well... 10 points for the genuine basic idea!

The Claymation character 'Michael Stone' is on a business trip to deliver a speech on customer service, he meets a woman and they find an emotional connection.This is a unique animated film, the themes being explored are loneliness, isolation, vulnerabilities, social awkwardness, and fear of rejection.This is really fascinating film. There are some deep messages. It's about as perfect as you can imagine. You won't watch anything like it!This is one of the easiest maximum scored I've ever awarded.

I'd go that far as too say that ANOMALISA is almost as dense and multi layered as the E.T.A. Hoffmann classical story DER SANDMANN, also including the puppet as a major metaphorical figure, the one Sigmund Freud used to explain the Uncanny in his prominent essay. The film can be read as a story about individuality and individualism in our times and/or about a mean psychosis coming alive and/or male and female sexual longings and/or a typical mid-life crisis of a semi-famous man realizing how detached he feels to his entire life and/or a desperate, sincere prayer to a God perceived as the ultimate puppet master doubled in the puppets within the story and double doubled within the dreams of the puppets within the story etc. ANOMALISA is surely a complex little film, but luckily at the same time told very straight forwardly and laid back, almost relaxed, which makes it easy to watch it through — and just beautifully animated from the puppet faces to the lightning choreographies within the virtual, shoe-box like spaces. Sometimes it is funny and sometimes dramatically sad, often it is both at the same time. Almost always it is intellectually stimulating and a pleasure for your eyes and ears.

Acclaimed Writer-Director Charlie Kaufman's films might not be for everyone, and they are an acquired taste; but one thing for sure is that Kaufman is an anomaly in so many filmmaking ways. Kaufman goes for the stop-motion animation in his movie "Anomalisa", which he co-directed with animation Director Duke Johnson. Anomalisa's protagonist is Michael Stone, a middle-aged motivational business speaker & author who travels to Cincinnati for a gig as a keynote speaker at a conference. Stone finds people and life in general very monotonous and with much sameness. But things go anomalistic when he meets Lisa, a depressed telemarketing representative who is attending the conference. Michael sees Lisa as a vibrant, standout woman and falls for her. His "hands of Stone" even get in Lisa's private parts. OK, that is enough. I will let you figure it out. But I do highly recommend to visit this eccentric, visionary film that had me quite engaged throughout its narrative. There is spectacular voice work from David Thewlis who voices Stone, Jennifer Jason-Leigh who voices Lisa, and Tom Noonan who voices everyone else. The animation was divine, and the score was right on. Kaufman's screenplay was a simplistic but original tour-de-force. And Johnson and him directed the hell out of "Anomalisa". Anomalisa! Anomalisa! Men have loved you!!! Hope women love it too, because it is in motion as a "must see" stop-motion animation treat. ***** Excellent