Review of Anomalisa (2015) by Rob A — 16 Feb 2016

Very bleak in its telling of one man, Michael, and his coping with the knowledge of his indifference to social connectivity and his inability to find love due to this mindset. Anomalisa is in some ways beautiful and in other ways very ugly in its honesty.

Because the director Charlie Kaufman chose the use of stop motion and puppets we are made to view this film very differently than the way we would with a live action cast. The disconnectedness from these inanimate objects walking and talking to each other allows for a strange separation, which makes situations funny and even uncomfortable at times.

At the same time however, something in what we are seeing and hearing is presented to us from the beginning, almost invisibly, which forces the viewer to inevitably be psychologically linked with the character so that what is on the surface, plastic, these puppets, fades away and all that we are left with is a perspective on our lives.

The film is very short and because of this it is hard to deny how powerful it is in its effectiveness to alter moods and minds. A definite achievement.