Few screenwriters working in Hollywood can boast the sheer imagination of Charlie Kaufman. Over the past 20 years Kaufman has collaborated with some of the most acclaimed directors in the industry to bring his imaginative screenplays to life as well as directing his own feature film with 2008s Synecdoche New York. Kaufman rose to prominence through his collaborations with Spike Jonze with 'Being John Malkovich' and 'Adaptation' as well as Michel Gondry with "Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind'. Kaufman often communicates visually interesting ideas in his work, such as erasing memories in dreams and a door in an office building that leads into actor John Malkovich's head, so when I heard he was collaborating with Duke Johnson, one of the creators behind Adult Swim's Moral Orel to create Anomalisa, I was excited.
Anomalisa follows the story of Michael Stone, as played by David Thewlis, as a practicing motivational speaker disillusioned with the world around him. In an interesting aesthetic decision, Stone views everyone around him as identical, all voiced by the same actor Tom Noonan, apart from this one woman Lisa. The film was made on a budget of just $8 Million dollars and uses stop-motion miniatures created en mass using 3D printing techniques. What's interesting about the aesthetic is the attention to detail in the subtle facial movements of the face, comparable to that of 3D animation or dare I say live action. Particular attention is paid to the subtle, nuanced acting in this film, a rarity in a animation which often relies heavily on exaggeration, anthropomorphisation and distortion of human features in order to communicate action to the audience.
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