Anomalisa
2015 · Directed by Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson
Original language: English
- animation
- drama
- romance
- comedy
The story
An inspirational speaker becomes reinvigorated after meeting a lively woman who shakes up his mundane existence.
What it’s like
Stop-motion puppets in hushed, carpeted hotel corridors and beige conference rooms, lit by flat fluorescent wash and the soft amber of a hotel bar at night. Nearly every face is a moulded sculpt with a slightly rubbery sheen, and the camera drifts through long, patient takes that linger on ordinary rooms and the hum of their emptiness. The score is sparse and wistful, with a few piano notes and long stretches of ambient room tone, so the silence itself carries weight. The vibe is melancholy and quietly uncanny, the feeling of a sleepless night in a city hotel where everything looks familiar and slightly wrong. It suits a late, solitary viewing when you want something contemplative and bittersweet rather than escapist. The pacing is slow and deliberate, and the emotional register swings between dry, awkward comedy and a creeping existential ache. Its central figure is a man who has grown numb to his own life and briefly lets himself feel something again. Intensity is low: there is no violence, and the one sexual scene is frank but not explicit. It is aimed at adults who enjoy unsettling, introspective, adult animation about loneliness and the search for connection.
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