Review of Anomalisa (2015) by Andrew B — 21 Jan 2016

Oh boy.

Charlie Kaufman isn't exactly known for making the happiest of movies. There's usually a lingering sense of sadness or cynicism that works its way in, even is his more upbeat movies. But not even Synecdoche New York with all of it's nihilism, was as downright oppressive in its hopelessness.

Some of the joyful topics explored in the movie include: Solipsism, fading mental health, the seeming mundanity of life even in moments that should feel meaningful, a loss of belief in the idea of love, the illusion of free will, and probably another ten or so things you could project upon the movie if you really wanted to. And *SLIGHT SPOILER* there isn't really any attempt made to answer the questions it raises on these topics. The entire movie takes place with the span of about 40 hours, with Michael landing a plane having a day and then taking a plan home. Obviously some stuff happens in between but its left rather vague if any of it is of any consequence in the larger picture of things (just like every event in our meaningless existences, *wink wink).

Outside of its philosophical messages the plots pretty straight forward, and not quite as meta challenging as his other films. The animation is really cool and used to aid the story in a very inventive way, in fact I don't see how they could have done the movie better in any other media.

Would not even remotely recommend the movie to most people, it's slow, it's depressing, it could easily be described as pretentious and meandering. So obviously I loved it thought it was hilarious and will probably see it another five times.