Definitely go see “Anomalisa”, but first, listen to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast with directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. Then, you’ll have more appreciation of the stop animation craft. Every minute of the film took one week to shoot which breaks the record for difficult actresses (AND actors, step down ladies).
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=anoalisa&view=detailv2&qft=+filterui%3alicense-L2_L3_L4_L5_L6_L7&id=218F3A4F6CC0D700E9EB67A53410B2A52EBADACE&selectedIndex=7&ccid=HL6vKiwW&simid=608039732148833508&thid=OIP.M1cbeaf2a2c16003e839f507a836ec7bfo0&ajaxhist=0
Was it “A Masterpiece” as one of the poster quotes foretold? Ah, no, BUT it was a contender. What’s missing is the following: As stated previously, unless you precede the film with a 10 minute documentary about the process, no normal American is going to understand the art work needed to achieve this film. (I really should have been in marketing and P.R. My other big tip of the week would have been a shoe to Trump’s groin when he said he wanted Sarah Palin to endorse him, “What are you crazy?”)
The other difficulty with Anomalisa is that there’s got to be a scene left out between Michael Stone’s re-connection with his old girlfriend and his shower scene. My guess is he called an escort service OR assumed his old girlfriend had second thoughts and come up to his room. Without either of those scenarios, the film lacks a continuous thread. If a character is suddenly mentally ill, his or her untrustworthiness is a significant flaw.
So maybe ‘Masterpiece’ should be changed to “Highly Admirable” because even though the film lacks story, there is something incredibly human about the eyes and skin of the claymation figures. Or perhaps that’s more of a depressing statement of how plastic real humans have become. Certainly the message is spot on since many men (or women) can spend countless Saturday evenings together (or even one special one) and discard the other human interacted with like a disposable tissue. The character Michael Stone wasn’t able to communicate, like so many humans who prefer to be mum, resulting in a passive aggressive expiration of human connection.
