Charlie Kaufman once again delivers a wholly unique cinema experience, one that bends and blurs the lines of reality in some of the same ways as Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. For fans of Charlie Kaufman, this movie will be right in their wheelhouse - if his work isn't as much to your taste then this probably won't change your mind.
Anomalisa contains the themes and concepts I normally enjoy, was written and directed by the man who can do no wrong, and done in a unique and interesting visual style. I should have liked this movie. I did not. Is the film an anomaly? Or am I?
A very well made and horrible film, about a mentally ill and selfish man taking advantage of various women. If you look over your shoulder at the audience behind you, you'll see them squirming, trying to retreat into their seats to avoid the agonising onslaught from the screen. Thoroughly uncomfortable, and I was in a terrible mood for the rest of the day. Five stars.
Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa is another deep, textured and yes, depressing film from this inventive genius, and just about the most mundane-looking stop-motion film you've ever seen. On the surface, the story is extremely simple: A depressed aging customer service expert goes to Cincinnati for a conference and falls for a young woman staying at his hotel, something told with all the realistic awkwardness this real moment would provide. Now. There's something really odd about this universe, because except for the protagonist and the title character, all the characters have a single voice and basic face. This has the effect of flattening the world and describing the lead's boredom and highlights his nascent feelings for a unique soul, but it has a real basis you might discover by looking up the name of the hotel which refers to the rare Fregoli delusion manifest in someone who believes that different people are in fact the same person. But let's go deeper. Since the character is in customer service, specifically call centers, the film becomes the tragic story of a man who only relates to faceless voices who all blur into one after a while, and the dehumanizing nature of such enterprises, which tend to turn people into robots. While I thought Anomalisa, like Kaufman's other films, could be wryly funny at times, it's still unlikely to brighten your day. (Therefore?) I really liked it.
A beautifully cynical film about fleeting attraction, the homogenised modern world, the illusion of individuality, and the despair of the human condition.
Charlie Kaufman is a writer whose work requires at least two views before I can say I like it. Mostly because I am not completely prepared to handle the dense nature of the script and the unpredictable places that it goes. Anomalisa would have been similar to my other first-time Kaufman experiences if it weren't for the anonymous ticket-taker who I spent a few minutes before the start talking about other Kaufman films. He told me how a bunch of people came to a free screening and hated it. We both simultaneously agreed that they should stick to less challenging work such as Michael Bay (anonymous ticket-taker's comment) or Transformers (my comment--I really like the pre-toy robot Bayhem). The interface with this fellow cinephile was brief and mostly one-sided as I was ill-prepared to converse intelligently on the finer points of art-house and blockbuster fare. But one piece of advice that he confirmed was extremely useful in this first view: "sit back and enjoy the ride."
Kaufman is able to take you places few other writers can and to try to figure out what it all means on the first go is a recipe for a bad time at the movies or success at missing the point. After becoming accustomed to the visual style (the awe at the artistic wizardry didn't go away even after the end credits), I was strapped in for a relatively mundane first half, which contained most of the laughs. But the heart and soul of the picture is in the second half.
I really want to say that this is Kaufman's most accessible and understandable work but that would be completely underselling the entire thing. So I'll part with this: I didn't really like it until halfway through the Godspeed You! Black Emperor concert I went to after. To experience disturbed beauty and to find light in the darkest places of the self is a heavy one-two punch of supreme excellence.
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dream_tiger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fregoli_delusionnymusix
Charlie Kaufman once again delivers a wholly unique cinema experience, one that bends and blurs the lines of reality in some of the same ways as Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. For fans of Charlie Kaufman, this movie will be right in their wheelhouse - if his work isn't as much to your taste then this probably won't change your mind.devilsadvocado
Anomalisa contains the themes and concepts I normally enjoy, was written and directed by the man who can do no wrong, and done in a unique and interesting visual style. I should have liked this movie. I did not. Is the film an anomaly? Or am I?munchable
A very well made and horrible film, about a mentally ill and selfish man taking advantage of various women. If you look over your shoulder at the audience behind you, you'll see them squirming, trying to retreat into their seats to avoid the agonising onslaught from the screen. Thoroughly uncomfortable, and I was in a terrible mood for the rest of the day. Five stars.Siskoid
Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa is another deep, textured and yes, depressing film from this inventive genius, and just about the most mundane-looking stop-motion film you've ever seen. On the surface, the story is extremely simple: A depressed aging customer service expert goes to Cincinnati for a conference and falls for a young woman staying at his hotel, something told with all the realistic awkwardness this real moment would provide. Now. There's something really odd about this universe, because except for the protagonist and the title character, all the characters have a single voice and basic face. This has the effect of flattening the world and describing the lead's boredom and highlights his nascent feelings for a unique soul, but it has a real basis you might discover by looking up the name of the hotel which refers to the rare Fregoli delusion manifest in someone who believes that different people are in fact the same person. But let's go deeper. Since the character is in customer service, specifically call centers, the film becomes the tragic story of a man who only relates to faceless voices who all blur into one after a while, and the dehumanizing nature of such enterprises, which tend to turn people into robots. While I thought Anomalisa, like Kaufman's other films, could be wryly funny at times, it's still unlikely to brighten your day. (Therefore?) I really liked it.neocowboy
A beautifully cynical film about fleeting attraction, the homogenised modern world, the illusion of individuality, and the despair of the human condition.PaleoSteno
Alright! Awkward stop-motion puppet sex!chryzsh
Starts incredibly good but gradually weakens until it crumbles under its own weightpalefire
Interesting take on mental illness/organic psychosis.fonz
Charlie Kaufman is a writer whose work requires at least two views before I can say I like it. Mostly because I am not completely prepared to handle the dense nature of the script and the unpredictable places that it goes. Anomalisa would have been similar to my other first-time Kaufman experiences if it weren't for the anonymous ticket-taker who I spent a few minutes before the start talking about other Kaufman films. He told me how a bunch of people came to a free screening and hated it. We both simultaneously agreed that they should stick to less challenging work such as Michael Bay (anonymous ticket-taker's comment) or Transformers (my comment--I really like the pre-toy robot Bayhem). The interface with this fellow cinephile was brief and mostly one-sided as I was ill-prepared to converse intelligently on the finer points of art-house and blockbuster fare. But one piece of advice that he confirmed was extremely useful in this first view: "sit back and enjoy the ride."Kaufman is able to take you places few other writers can and to try to figure out what it all means on the first go is a recipe for a bad time at the movies or success at missing the point. After becoming accustomed to the visual style (the awe at the artistic wizardry didn't go away even after the end credits), I was strapped in for a relatively mundane first half, which contained most of the laughs. But the heart and soul of the picture is in the second half.
I really want to say that this is Kaufman's most accessible and understandable work but that would be completely underselling the entire thing. So I'll part with this: I didn't really like it until halfway through the Godspeed You! Black Emperor concert I went to after. To experience disturbed beauty and to find light in the darkest places of the self is a heavy one-two punch of supreme excellence.
Filmbuff77
Would have been great as a 30 min short film. As a feature, it’s overlong and tedious. It hits the same note over and over and over…I’m a big fan of Charlie Kaufman, but this is an overrated misfire.
conita_
[spoiler] I felt really unconfortable with that sex scene [spoiler]kellyjack
Creepiest. Movie. Ever.fbillys
I really want to like this movie, but I can't. Meh.God
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