Film No. 6 (2016) Anomalisa January 23rd.

Film No. 6 (2016) January 23rd.  10.45 AM LUNA Leederville. 

"Look for what is special about each individual, focus on that and remember there is someone out there for everyone" ( the introductory voice over of Michael Stone (David Thewlis)as he comes to terms with his life predicament).

 

 

Seriously, if some one said to me that I had to go and see an animated film (po mo movement) about a depressed guy who flies to a large American city (Cincinnati) for 24 hours to deliver a motivational talk based on his self help book How May I Help You To Help Them, I'd  have doubts. Such a description would lead me to think the film lacked substance. In the case of Anomalisa nothing could be further from the truth. Charlie Kaufman takes his audience on a journey that only Kaufman can deliver.

 

A week on and I still have flashbacks of Anomalisa. It is a part of the Kaufman Experience as we meet Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) who is sitting in an plane staring out the window at another plane flying alongside just prior to descent. Be sure to keep an eye on this plane as you pass the last cloud (yet another small Kaufman puzzle). Stone is a puppet in more ways than one. He's a puppet put together in defined segments (visually) and he is a puppet to his own self indulged, middle aged emotions. We spend 24 hours with a fellow we grow to dislike more and more as the minutes pass.

 

So why spend the 90 minutes with Michael Stone? Well because it is the insignificant moments in Anolalisa one remembers. The shower scene, the sex scene, the lobby and lift scenes remind us of those days we arrive in a four star hotel and play the "getting to know your room" ritual we all know. The Kaufman factor is then weaved through the simple momentum of the film. There is the aptly named  Frigoli Hotel (research the name post film), the same voice (Tom Noonan) for all characters other than Lisa (Jenifer Jason Leigh) excepting for a brief moment (significant) and the "toy" he buys his son. 

 

Charlie Kaufman never acknowledges publicly what he intends for his audiences. The word is that Kaufman delights in receiving feedback - not to reaffirm his ideas but to delight in ideas he never thought of but sees the relevance of. The overwhelming theme in so much of his work is to depict "man in an emotional mess", the highly unlikable Michael Stone may just be his high (or low) point to now. Bravo Charlie Kaufman! 10GUMS