Review of Anomalisa (2015) by Bonnie S — 23 Jul 2016

A story about a self-obsessed man who thinks he's amazing and thinks the world is a dull hellhole full of people who are all the same, desperately searching for a genuine human connection at the expense of his wife and child (and the people he leaves heartbroken in his wake) but failing to do so because of his cynicism and his inability to deal with peoples' flaws.

He is enamored with novelty and whenever he thinks he can find an escape from the monotony of his regular life he latches onto it until he realizes that that novelty, too, is just like everything and everyone else.

All of the faces and voices are the same because, to him, everyone is exactly the same. His fregoli delusion (also the name of the hotel he stays at) is a result of him being a cynical ass and has a physical manifestation in the art direction of the movie.

There is a beautiful irony and appropriateness to the fact that he is famous for revolutionizing customer service: he gives advice on how everyone is a unique human being with their own thoughts and feelings, and yet he clearly doesn't believe it himself; yet customer service, which is really about putting on a mask and following a formula to achieve a desired outcome from human interaction, seems to be his sole method of interpersonal communication for the most part.

He desperately wants a human connection but gets angry at even casual attempts at connection. His dreams reveal all of this to an extent - he feels everyone is in love with him; everyone reveals themselves to actually all be the same person; he is horrified at the idea of his "mask" falling off his face.