Film Review: ‘Anomalisa’ Is Stop-Motion Magic

“Anomalisa” is directed by Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman, and written by Charlie Kaufman, based on his play of the same name. It stars David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan.

Reviewing Anomalisa requires some delicacy. One must convey what makes this film so special and worthwhile without spoiling its plot. It’s the new film from Charlie Kaufman, everyone’s favorite wiz kid screenwriter (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) turned filmmaker. His first film as a director was 2008’s colossal masterpiece Synecdoche, New York, which remains one of the most moving, profound films ever made. This is his first film since, and it sure is nice to have him back. Synecdoche was a wildly ambitious project, seemingly trying to be about literally everything. How do you follow that up? Anomalisa does so by scaling back considerably. This is a small, intimate story about two characters, taking place over just one day.

Michael Stone (David Thewlis) is a writer and motivational speaker who’s field of expertise is customer service. Stone is listless and exhausted with life. Everything blends together and it seems very likely that he is depressed. He flies into Cincinnati to give a speech, and at his hotel, he meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh). He is instantly smitten. That’s all you really need to know. This is a film best experienced cold.

This film is animated in the “stop-motion” style, and it is masterfully done. This is the best stop-motion I have ever seen. There are sequences that reportedly took months of painstaking work to shoot, and the effort pays off. The movement is fluid and lifelike; the way the bodies shift and sag is incredible. The highlight, however, is the level of facial expression on the lead characters. They convey so much emotion that, at times, I forgot I was watching an animated film.

This is a film where all of the elements come together to advance the story’s central theme. It is airtight, a perfect object. I’ve seen it twice now and my admiration for its construction has only grown. Kaufman’s films are always feats of writerly engineering: conceptual and complex. There’s a bit of that here (this is a Kaufman script, through and through), but his approach is simpler than usual, with no gimmicks to speak of. While the ending of Synecdoche, New York, essentially demands we watch the movie again, here the meaning of the story is painfully clear and straightforward.

The film’s tone is perfectly balanced as well. Kaufman’s recent work has been quite dour, and Anomalisa sees the return of the sense of humor that defined his early material so well. There are several moments that had the entire theater laughing out loud. It’s not really a comedy though, nor is it “fun.” The prevailing tone is melancholy, with an earnest sense of longing.

Anomalisa comes out Decmeber 30 in limited release and goes wide in January. I have a hard time imagining it will do well, seeing as it’s a mid-budget stop-motion film that’s rated R and aimed squarely at adults. But even if this film does fail, the mere fact that it exists is a victory in itself (the film was funded on Kickstarter). This is a film that deserves to be seen. If you like Kaufman’s work you’re in for it already, but if you’re unfamiliar then you owe it to yourself to see something this unusual, urgent, and emotional. This is the year’s best film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT6QJaS2a-U

-Anthony Calamunci