Anomalisa

[projekktor id=’22634′]

Anomalisa is a stop-motion animated drama written and directed by Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York; Being John Malkovich). It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival last year and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival. The film features the voices of David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan.

Michael Stone, husband, father and respected author of “How May I Help You Help Them?” is a man crippled by the mundanity of his life. On a business trip to Cincinnati, where he’s scheduled to speak at a convention of customer service professionals, he checks into the Fregoli Hotel. There, he is amazed to discover a possible escape from his desperation in the form of an unassuming Akron baked goods sales rep, Lisa, who may or may not be the love of his life.

“We wanted the bodies to seem real,” says Kaufman. “The puppets are tiny and required very precise movements with pins on the part of the animators to bring life to the eyes. Our goal was to make the characters feel soulful and expressive. When you’re looking at big-budget animated movies that do this, the puppets are finessed in post production to the point that they are interchangeable visually with computer generated characters. It’s very hard to tell the difference. We didn’t want to fight against the materials we were using.”

Anomalisa is rated 18A.