Written, produced, and directed by Charlie Kaufman, with Duke Johnson, Anomalisa is a stop-motion animated film starring David Thewlis as Michael Stone, a self-help writer; Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lisa, a woman with low self-esteem; and Tom Noonan as everyone else. The film has received rave reviews, though has yet to make a decent earning in the North American box office, standing at $1 million to its $8 million budget.
Michael Stone, a writer, hears and sees everyone as identical people, with identical faces and voices, until a one-night stay at a hotel before delivering a self-help lecture. There, he meets Lisa, who has her own face and voice, which fascinates him. They grow close as Michael nicknames her "Anomalisa," but his internal turmoil quickly comes to the forefront of his life. The film is based on the stage play of the same name, written by Charlie Kaufman under the pseudonym Francis Fregoli. In addition to earning a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and stellar critical acclaim, Anomalisa was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 21st Critics Choice Awards and the 73rd Golden Globes; though the film did not win, Anomalisa also holds five nominations, including Best Animated Feature, for the 43rd Annie Awards, and is nominated for Best Animated Feature film at the 88th Academy Awards.
The animation itself doesn't seem to have drawn a lot of attention, outside the fact that people "forget" it's animated, which Kaufman has said they were trying to accomplish. However, given its nominations, I decided to take a look behind the scenes, up close and personal with the animators, to talk less about the story - of which you can find extensive discussion in any critic's review - and more about the amazing art that went into this film. Check out Part 1 of the behind the scenes b-roll below:
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