Anomalisa

20 minutes into this movie I was wondering why this was animated. It wasn't bringing any value to the plot, or style at all. It was just animation replacing normal, easy to film life. I was going to knock this down a bit for this reason for sure.

Then the film ended and I was totally wrong. In fact, by the end I was totally wrong about a lot going in. The details are a little dangerous to talk about with people who haven't seen it yet. I don't want to have you walk in with predisposed thought. So if you haven't seen it yet, go do yourself a favor and let me know what you thought afterwards. I loved it in the end.

SPOILERS BELOW
If you've seen it and don't get my love of this, here I go. This film slowly seeds his mental illness perfectly. I didn't even think about it until over halfway in, but by then it all looks so obvious. He's taking pills at the start. Everyone is voiced the same at the start. Everyone has the same face at the start.

Early on, you simply think it is a style choice. But when you get a unique face and voice to show up, suddenly the rest stands out even stronger. Now you're learning what it is like to be in his shoes. The mental illness slowly growing keeps you from fixing the problem.

If one day you woke up and you were colorblind, you'd freak out. If over a few years you slowly went colorblind, would you notice?

Michael Stone: "I think you're extraordinary".

Lisa: "Why?".

Michael Stone: "I don't know yet. It's just obvious to me that you are".

"Anomalisa", one of my most anticipated movie of 2015. Charlie Kaufman is an inspiration, as a writer and now a director. Synecdoche, New York is one of my all time favorite movies, and yeah it's not for everyone, but I personally loved it as with every repeat viewings of the movie made my love it each more. Now we've got Anomalisa, Kaufman's new film and I did have the pleasure of watching the movie last night and I thought it was freaking fantastic. He did it again everyone.

What really surprised me is how Anomalisa is the least complicated film by Charlie Kaufman. I mean 'Synecdoche, New York' was very complicated and really needed Analyzing with repeat viewings just to get a gasp on what's happening, but here, it's not that complicated. But the movie has a lot of clever and excellent choices that makes this movie just as unique as it is. Since we live in a age that every movie is the same, this movie stands out from the rest and it's execution was better than most of the animated movies I've seen this year.

Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman are the main directors of this movie, and both of them have created one marvel of a film. Both of them mixed humor and seriousness together perfectly well. Duke Johnson is best known for working on TV shows such as: 'Moral Orel', 'Mary Shelley's Frankenhole', and 'Community'. So yeah, "Anomalisa" is Duke Johnson's first feature length film and I thought he did a brilliant job on this movie, as he worked well with Charlie.

Another thing I have to praise is the animation as it is freaking flawless. The movie is in stop motion and it's seriously impressive. Whenever the main character goes through doors into different rooms and hall ways it was handled marvelously, because it makes this universe that the movie is set in feel real. The voice acting and the character designs made these characters feel like real people. Oh and how can I not talk about the characters eyes in this movie, as it was more realistic and impressive than any other animated movie I've seen this year. "The most human movie of the year. And it doesn't star a single human." - From Matt patches

Overall rating: 'Anomalisa' is one of the best animated movies of 2015. It's way better than "Inside Out" (In my opinion). Charlie Kaufman has done it again everyone.

Very beautiful stop motion movie.

Level "Excellent" • 8 ❤ • Recommended.

He gave his son a (probably cursed) japanese sex doll

I was definitely not prepared to see that film. It certainly takes time to digest it and see it again is mandatory. The animation is incredible.

After reading some articles, it seems that the movie is based on the Fregoli delusion, but I thought it could be given a much wider meaning in relation to mental health in general.


Michael is supposedly the master of communication, he even writes books about it, yet he seems to be constantly running away from human interactions. Doing the same things, meeting the same people, having the same small talk… everyone looks and sounds the same, like a puppet. Even when he happens to [spoiler]find someone who feels “different”, it won’t take long before they end up “changing”. That’s what Michael has kept blaming his former lovers and current wife for, even though it’s not hard to figure out that he is just a narcissistic self-indulgent asshole. Lisa is just one more puppet, not that different from the Japanese doll he buys at the store (the two happen to have the same voice and scars on their face).[/spoiler]

That made me think about how mental illness and depression can change your perception of the world, and how that can end up hurting everyone around you.

Interpretations aside, the movie makes creative use of the stop-motion medium to paint the subtle portrait of a puppet that looks more human than live-action actors. Slow-paced and mostly inconsequential, but still surprisingly compelling.