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View Full Version : Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman)



Ezee E
09-13-2015, 03:01 PM
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/506878805332336640/nc2rqTy2.png

IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2401878/?ref_=nv_sr_2)

Stay Puft
09-14-2015, 06:25 AM
Someone was pretty busy at Telluride, I'm guessing.

Ezee E
09-14-2015, 09:26 PM
It's the most movies I've seen in quite some time.

Tons of rain prevented me from hiking as well.

Passholders see 12-16 movies... somehow.

Sycophant
09-15-2015, 09:45 PM
I'm trying my damnedest to keep my expectations in check for this one. And people like Walter Chaw aren't helping (http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2015/09/telluride-15-anomalisa.html).

It's weird that I helped Kickstart this over 3 years ago.

Henry Gale
09-16-2015, 05:15 AM
It's really, really good. It goes from being surreally naturalistic (the oddity stemming inherently from it's animation style and design and the juxtaposition of that to charming mundanity of much of what goes on in it) to extremely charming (especially when it comes to Jennifer Jason Leigh's work), and of course, it being Kaufman, it also has extremely surreal turns that initially seem like passing fancies that then plant themselves unexpectedly deeply into the fabric of what we've been watching all along, and it's that realization that makes the rest even more fascinating and then completely haunting.

But the less I say the better, and the more people see it, the happier I'll be. Absolutely one of the best animated movi-- er, anything of the year for me, only challenged by World of Tomorrow and Starburns Industries' own Rick and Morty, which I'd now die to see Kaufman have some hand in at some point knowing such a connection exists.

Ezee E
11-06-2015, 06:26 AM
This will do great in the arthouse theaters. I'd really like to see what people with no knowledge of Charlie Kaufman will end up reacting like.

Irish
01-02-2016, 05:46 AM
I loathed this movie. Loathed it. I want to find every critic on Rotten Tomatoes who gave this a positive review and beat them to death with a copy of Sinclair Lewis' Babbit.

Watashi
01-02-2016, 07:09 AM
I loathed this movie. Loathed it. I want to find every critic on Rotten Tomatoes who gave this a positive review and beat them to death with a copy of Sinclair Lewis' Babbit.

Awesome. Guaranteed best film of 2015.

[ETM]
01-02-2016, 07:25 AM
Awesome. Guaranteed best film of 2015.

Irish Guarantee of Quality!™

Henry Gale
01-02-2016, 06:20 PM
Ahaha, you guys. I do really like it (*dodges copy of Babbit*) but I still don't have it in me to say it's as perfect or transcendent as I may have wanted it to be (ie. Kaufman's other, best works).

Similar to Her, I don't think I should find it surprising to hear that people can't connect to a movie about not connecting to people. Even when it's this well-made.

Irish
01-02-2016, 08:11 PM
It's not a problem of connection. It's that everything this movie says about its subject matter is trite.

I'll grant that bits and pieces are well done. The voice work is outstanding, as is a specific choice they made in the casting. The level of detail is eye popping. (I'm neither expert nor connoisseur, but this seems like top-flight, double plus good puppet work.) Some of the dialogue is pitch-perfect, especially everything around the "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" scene. I can't remember when characters expressed as much inner life by speaking in pure banalities.

Mostly, Anomalisa exists in a state of critical grace because it's offbeat and non-commercial in a theatrical world that's the exact opposite. If critics spend years swallowing The Wachowskis Fucked It Up Again: Part IV, Alvin and the Chipmunks XXIII, and Teenage Mutant Turtles: Just Buy the Goddamn Toys Already over and over and over again in all their gross, formulaic, predictable combinations, well then Anomalisa is something of a revelation because, by comparison, it's so damned weird and it is earnest in that weirdness.

I don't think weird is enough, especially when the movie freely roams territory that's been well explored over the last century. It's dripping with self awareness and mid-century bougie meets bobo angst. It says nothing new about this, and declines to comment on its own action. One review at Reverse Shot read that as intentional, but I don't buy it. Such an interpretation is too clever by half and it doesn't resolve the film's other shortcomings, like the awful dream sequence and an abrupt, unbelievable close.

*throws a copy of Theory of the Leisure Class at you*
*throws a copy of Sult at you*
*throws a copy of Babbit at you*
*throws a copy of The Airconditioned Nightmare at you*
*throws a copy of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty at you*
*throws a copy of Holiday at you*
*throws a copy of Man in the Gray Flannel Suit at you*
*throws a copy of The Lost Weekend at you, followed by The Apartment for good measure*
*throws a copy of The Days of Wine and Roses at you*
*throws a copy of the complete Eric Rohmer DVD boxset at you*
*throws a copy of Alfie at you, followed by a copy of the remake, just to be sure*
*says sure, why not? and throws a copy of Catch-22 at you*

;)

Stay Puft
01-02-2016, 11:49 PM
*throws a copy of the complete Eric Rohmer DVD boxset at you*

whoa now. you can kill somebody with that thing.

Pop Trash
01-12-2016, 03:19 AM
*throws a copy of The Lost Weekend at you, followed by The Apartment for good measure*
*throws a copy of The Days of Wine and Roses at you*
*throws a copy of the complete Eric Rohmer DVD boxset at you*
*throws a copy of Alfie at you, followed by a copy of the remake, just to be sure*


I haven't read the books you name dropped, but I've seen all these, and I don't think there is any problem with this movie co-existing with what you mentioned. Plus Days of Wine and Roses and Lost Weekend are just as much about alcoholism as they are mid-20th century corporate ennui.

It's like complaining that Fight Club came out the same year as American Beauty, Office Space, and The Matrix (or hell, even Being John Malkovich). I mean sometimes media just converges on singular ideas.

Anyway, I liked this quite a bit, but I don't think it's top tier Kaufman. Synecdoche, NY felt like a sprawling tome whereas this feels like a short story. I find the choice to use puppets in such banal situations interesting in the same way I find Tarantino's choice to use 70mm in what's basically a chamber mystery interesting.

Is it weird I found the puppet sex scene strangely erotic? Perhaps.

Irish
01-12-2016, 03:56 AM
Plus Days of Wine and Roses and Lost Weekend are just as much about alcoholism as they are mid-20th century corporate ennui.

Alcoholism, especially on film, is visual representation of interior angst.


It's like complaining that Fight Club came out the same year as American Beauty, Office Space, and The Matrix (or hell, even Being John Malkovich). I mean sometimes media just converges on singular ideas.

Those movies approached their subjects from a different angle and had something to say about them.

Tell me something new about Anomalisa that doesn't involve puppets.

Ezee E
01-12-2016, 11:00 PM
Anomalisa has a lot of new that doesn't involve puppets. The choice of voice acting, the minimal plot/big idea story, relatively normal conversation going on but yet a whole lot more at the same time.

I should watch this again.

Ivan Drago
01-25-2016, 03:07 AM
I really need to see this movie.


Again.


Really, really soon.

dreamdead
01-31-2016, 06:14 PM
I'm not as negative as Irish, but I am more critical of it than I expected. Whereas something like ESotSM or Synecdoche, New York had emotional resonance and ideas beyond the inability to connect, this one remains hampered by the fact that it's one of Kaufman's films that's largely anchored around one idea. Further, it can't figure out where on a continuum to place Michael Stone--is he manipulating Lisa since he wields power over her, is he sacrificing that power as he connects more with her, or is he simply hapless? The film, especially in the final 10-15 minutes, jumps off the rails for me, and not in an interesting way. As Michael becomes more self-destructive and can't "deliver" in the meeting, he also undoes the film from approaching any of the more complicated ideas about why he's the way that he is.

Whereas Kaufman's earlier works committed to studying why people are the way that they are, this one just feels less committed to depth. And while the Cincinnati zoo/restaurant stuff is quite fun, the film ends close to simply reversing the manic dream pixie girl trope, which isn't quite interesting enough to make me feel like much is gained.

Yes, Lisa is more more mature and confident, but she doesn't feel betrayed, used, or taken advantage of? Eh... that feels contrary to so much of her character.

number8
02-06-2016, 09:58 PM
This movie has ruined Tom Noonan for me.

Grouchy
05-29-2016, 10:03 PM
This movie was pretty fantastic. I agree that there's a gimmick, and that there's nothing subtle about that gimmick, but the way it gradually becomes relevant to the character arc is an example of incredible writing from Kaufman. I'd also like to praise the minimalistic animation, which works so well even on a literal level for the usual Kaufman characters which always seem to be coming apart at the seams.


Yes, Lisa is more more mature and confident, but she doesn't feel betrayed, used, or taken advantage of? Eh... that feels contrary to so much of her character.
Eh, by her own admission she hadn't had sex in years. She's understandably grateful even if the guy turned out to be a nutcase.

Philip J. Fry
06-03-2016, 08:29 PM
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z73/Wolf_of_the_Winter/Screenshots/Anomalisa_zpsfk2fcf71.jpg
Such cool animation, but everyone like, looks the same!

Anomalisa.
Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, 2015.

What did I think about it? Loneliness! Insanity! Middle age crisis! Is that semen?

But being more serious, this is a movie as existentialist as it can get. Michael, while being surrounded by people, tends to be lonely, bored and in many ways sees himself with no future, just trapped in the monotony of life and yet... he is not above trying to get a change, even if it comes from the most unlikely of places.

I honestly see why he felt so attracted to Lisa. While she might not seem like the smartest person and isn't physically speaking attractive, she does have the most adorable personality, a mix of insecurity, shyness and kindness that makes her quite a hoot, all toppled by her authenticity, she's kind of a manic pixie dream girl that Kaufman subverts well and just like Clementine doesn't want people to expect her to change their world, Lisa is unable to change Michael's either. What I find a bit more interesting is that instead of an eventual crash of personalities leading to the end of a relationship like Joel and Clementine, this one seems to be more because Michael is kind of a dick. True, his condition is kinda horrible, but he seems to be a little more destructive and obsessive that one might have thought at first. While he seems quite shocked when Lisa becomes "everyone else", he seems a little too keen into seeing her flaws (petty flaws) than to give her a chance to try to show something more lasting and special, instead, deciding to run away, which, as implied with Bella (and probably her wife), is not the first time, choosing instead to run away. Michael might be trapped in a lonely world, monotone world, but it is his fault.

Final thoughts: Is he insane or just a misanthrope? I can see a little bit of both. Tons of self-destruction. Good flick.

Grouchy
06-04-2016, 12:44 AM
All excellent points. The lead character also seems to have a morbid fascination with his own angst that doesn't allow him to see the opportunities for happiness. It's probably why Kaufman makes the sex scene so long and detailed, because it's the one moment where he allows himself to go along with the flow of events.

TGM
06-22-2016, 05:52 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WAB-2jEJzo&feature=youtu.be&a