Charlie Kaufman’s films have always offered critical peeks at the human condition, usually with a mixture of bizarre comedy and sombre reflection. Kaufman’s latest, which sees him tackling animated drama, appears to drill into that same well of emotion and the first trailer for Anomalisa is online.
Our nominal hero for this story is Michael Stone, a man famous in inspirational speaking circles, visiting Los Angeles on business. After landing at the airport, and heading to the hotel, he encounters a variety of other characters, including an emotional old flame named Donna and the charming, introverted Lisa. Everyone he meets will have an impact on him before he delivers a keynote speech. Naturally, this being Kaufman, there are many layers lurking beneath that seemingly quiet surface, and the director (who worked with Duke Johnson on the film after raising funds to make it on Kickstarter), has several fascinating twists on the usual animated fair. Take, for example, the fact that pretty much everyone bar Lisa and Michael (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh and David Thewlis) are seemingly identical characters with only hairstyle and gender to separate them. Or that they’re all voiced by Tom Noonan…
Anomalisa has been drawing plenty of praise after playing the festival circuit, and is being talked about as a potential awards contender. It’ll be out in the UK on March 11 next year.