Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, 2015)

[hearthesilence]

Caught a preview screening tonight and loved it, it's on par with Kaufman's other great films. Animation was very impressive, and while it may very well have been a straight adaptation (or animated visualization) of Kaufman's original 2005 play, the animation doesn't feel superfluous. What it really brings to the film is something to think about - I wish they had delved into this more, but Johnson himself described it in the words I just gave, and Kaufman almost shrugged the decision of animating this film as being a default choice (i.e. "the company that wanted to make this film was an animation company")

Regardless, all three voice actors were wonderful too. Tom Noonan hilarious again, Jennifer Jason Leigh wonderfully sweet, and David Thewlis was excellent, always a favorite. I think it's been 7 years since Kaufman's last film? Far too long, it's a shame they have to be so rare these days.

[hearthesilence]

Reverse Shot's first review of the New Year, Nick Pinkerton on this film.

[copen]

I think it's been 7 years since Kaufman's last film? Far too long, it's a shame they have to be so rare these days.

On youtube DP/30 Kaufman said that he's completed 2 movies and 2 tv shows since Synecdoche, New York. FX channel didn't pick up the show "How and Why", and the film "Frank or Francis" has been listed as 'in production' for about the past 5 years. I don't understand why FX or any other tv channel wouldn't want a Kaufman tv show. They're fools because there's so little of value on tv, but i'm sure they think that they know what they're doing (which they don't).

[HAL 9000]

I saw Charlie Kaufman at the Jacob Burns Film Center showing this film and having a discussion with him and the co director afterwards with the audience in the theater. He said that this film took a long time to make and that's basically because they didn't resort to technology like computers. He also says that he has a hard time getting any of his films made. I think it was because they are sort of the beaten path and unusual. It's a shame because it would show more movie goers that there are other films out there that would get an audience if they had the chance to.

[mfunk9786]

I'm glad that others see the tremendous appeal and charms of this little film, because it felt far too personal to me to be remotely rational about my love of it here. In my [Michael, fancy that] more candid moments I've tried to explain to my wife [Lisa, fancy that] how much of a fan I am of hers. It doesn't make our relationship all that unique, I'm sure, but I find myself constantly trying to absorb as much minutiae and as many tiny details of her humanity as I can as our time together goes on, because it all thrills and fascinates me in a way that I can't really articulate. Even though this is only a small portion of what Kaufman and Johnson so deftly manage to put in the form of great cinema here (Michael obviously has a serious ego and commitment problem haunting him and the sequence I'm referring to is only a piece to this puzzle, and explored in fascinating ways). But the moments with Lisa and Michael getting to know one another in his hotel room may be my favorite sequence in any film this year [or any year?], and I can't imagine watching it again without being completely wrecked by just how personal it feels.

I don't know if Anomalisa is this year's best film or just the year's best film for me, but my God, will I cherish it forever. Perhaps it's not the sweeping romance that my own Anomalisa deserves, but it is a perfect celebration of each human being's beautiful eccentricities and how they can knock someone else on their heels (whether for a night or for a lifetime, whether that person has enormously selfish intentions or... somewhat... less... selfish ones).

[mfunk9786]

Also (and normally I wouldn't post again below my own post but this is totally unrelated): Has there been another movie with a device that'd be so completely lost on someone who's deaf or significantly hard of hearing? I'm having difficulty coming up with one.

[criterion10]

Has there been another movie with a device that'd be so completely lost on someone who's deaf or significantly hard of hearing?

I think a lot of Godard's experiments with sound would apply here (consider the dance hall/show sequence in Contempt).

[Ribs]

Apparently this is going wide this weekend...

...as a B-feature to select showtimes of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Seriously. Look this up at your local multiplex starting Friday. It's insane.

[DarkImbecile]

Weird as it may be, anything that makes it more available to more people if fine in my book.

[mfunk9786]

Does anyone have any details on this? It seems like a Fandango error if anything - and it seems to only be happening at Regal theaters near me, not AMCs.

[Ribs]

AMC has it listed as a special double feature on their website.

If I were to guess, Paramount wants to basically artificially boost Anomalisa's box office take by hoping audiences will just buy the ticket for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot and leave when it's over, allowing their money to be split between the two films.

A bit confusing given that it's in its third week so won't exactly be bringing in the big bucks anyway.

I like the idea of this as a way to get these movies out of the big cities but this is basically certain to be a crippling failure isn't it?

[mfunk9786]

It's one of the stranger things I've seen in my entire life of going to the movies, that's for damn sure.

[Ashirg]

Is there going to be a short and a newsreel between the features?

[domino harvey]

Because Grindhouse was so financially successful...

[mfunk9786]

Wow, I didn't realize how much of a bomb Whiskey Tango Foxtrot has been financially - I guess this is some sort of concession to theaters that committed to both of these films already, maybe?

[domino harvey]

My local theater sent me an email asking me to attend an early "Ladies Night Out" screening for it, that's when I knew it was in trouble even before it opened

[mfunk9786]

There's nothing ladies love bonding over more than Iraq war journalism and Margot Robbie

[domino harvey]

Well, there was also this:

Top off your evening with our specially created WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT drink specials.

[Werewolf by Night]

Too bad they didn't also have a dance instructor on hand to give tango and foxtrot lessons, that would have been a huge draw.

[dustybooks]

I'm grateful for the dumb double feature idea because it gave me a chance to actually see this -- my wife showed me Synecdoche on our first date so we've been looking forward to the film, to put it mildly, and were disappointed it never came to this area. At my theater, Anomalisa was the first feature -- at 2:45pm! -- so we just left after it was over. I loved it but it will take me a while to unpack my feelings about it. I cosign just about all of mfunk's thoughts though.

[hearthesilence]

Very bleak outlook from Kaufman regarding his career. I loved this film, but it only made $6 million back on its $8 million budget, a crushing disappointment given how long and difficult it had been for Kaufman to make another film.

[knives]

Man, what a beautiful little film and a real sign that Kaufman doesn't necessarily need his little tricks to make an effective story. It also serves as a good reminder that Kaufman got his start in sitcoms. This could easily have been an episode of Fraiser. That said I don't think any sitcom could have had me crying the way I was for Lisa. Every movie needs to have JJl singing. All three I can think of are among the best of all time.

[therewillbeblus]

SpoilerShow

The tragedy of when JJL's voice begins to fade into Noonan's as the honeymoon stage mirrors its own fading transition into apathy, with Thewlis beginning to exhibit his own character defects in response, is heartbreaking. Perhaps the best exhibition I can think of that validates the at times impossibility of overcoming one's own personalities or controlling feelings of love and connection, which are not up to us. One of the most tragic personal predicaments is when one falls out of love or cannot make a relationship work through no fault of anyone, due to some cosmic disconnect that is an enigma to all and affects the happiness and self-esteem of all involved. This is the story of that harm in a relatable fashion but also acknowledging the beauty in those impermanent moments just as much as the pain in when they inevitably slip away. It's both a celebration and a depressing disclosure, and instead of serving as a choose-your-own-adventure coin flip for the audience to pick a lens, Kaufman forces the grey space of both upon us.

This may not be my favorite Kaufman film, but it is his most raw and true expression of surrender, and probably the one that has affected me most.

[knives]

SpoilerShow

I know looking for optimism in a Kaufman movie is fairly fruitless, but that scene nevertheless hit me like a tank. I really was hoping he'd be able to be mature at least with her and begin to turn from his egotism. The film reminded me of my favorite Kaufman line. In Eternal Sunshine Carrey at the beginning chastises himself for always following in love when he see a woman's face. Especially at the time I first saw the film that statement carried a lot of weight for me as a symbol of my own need to be loved converted into something arrogant. Here we get almost the opposite where the need to define empathy makes it impossible to love. Nobody is different from other people. It's a contrast between (relatively) youthful arrogance and middle aged one both acting out as love. It's a viscous understanding of psychology.

[therewillbeblus]

SpoilerShow

Yes exactly, but a true one where I think we must simultaneously cut ourselves some slack for this uncontrollable reversion to the intangible depths of our psychologies, to even slightly offset the inevitable self-criticism most if not all engage in when fighting the unwinnable fight in these cases. The validation is that regardless of his arrogance, Michael desperately wants to love Lisa, and yet cannot hold onto that love and get out of his own way. It's a very stark portrait of the ego's infiltration in disbarring connection. It also sobers one up from the lovely and also true message of my favorite Kaufman line, from Adaptation: "You are what you love, not what loves you." And yet this film is mature enough to say, "yes, and-" before affirming us all that sometimes even to love isn't possible when we want it to, and that's another layer of acceptance to peel back on the onion, and that it's okay and inevitable sometimes. As sad as it is, there's something powerful about knowing this isn't only my experience and this offering is a gift, the same way as self-help groups allow one to feel gratitude when listening to others discuss similar problems not because of schadenfreude in comparison, but because of unity.