Already proving himself an incredibly imaginative screen writer with Being John Malkovich, Adaption, and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Charlie Kauffman effortlessly made the jump to director with 2008’s wonderfully baffling Synecdoche, New York. Seven years later, he’s back in the director’s chair with Anomalisa, a tale of human connection told through the medium of puppetry. Made in association with Community creator Dan Harmon’s Starburns Industries (responsible for the stop motion episode Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas of the shows second season), Anomalisa has already achieved a tidal wave of praise on the festival circuit, and now its coming to our screens, giving us all the chance to marvel at the ground breaking and eerily beautiful 3D printed puppets.
Telling the tale of a lonely, depressed author (David Thewlis) whose days wandering the halls of a bland hotel finally find meaning when he meets the only other should he can connect with, Lisa (Jennifer Jason leigh), Anomalisa brings with it the usual surreal edge of any of Kauffman’s work. In this case, every other character besides the author and Lisa is voiced by the mighty Tom Noonan (a personal hero of mine who crawled into my nightmares as Francis Dolarhyde in Manhunter), but that doesn’t take away from the beauty of the visuals and the story, which is surprisingly grown up for the medium its told in.
While American audiences get to see Anomalisa on December 30th, this of us on this side of the pond will unfortunately have to wait till March 11th 2016.
