Charlie Kaufman’s breathtaking, Kickstarter-funded stop-motion romance had one of the best receptions during this year’s fall festival circuit.
It world-premiered to positive reviews at the Telluride film festival, and followed that with a strong showing in Venice, where it won the festival’s Grand Jury Prize. The film did its victory lap at the Toronto international film festival, where it emerged as an Oscar contender after netting a distribution deal with Paramount Pictures (the studio has promised to campaign for the picture).
The film is quirky and, like all of Kaufman’s work, deeply singular – and is the film-maker’s first stab at animation. It centers on Michael Stone, a middle-aged married motivational speaker (voiced by David Thewlis), haunted by memories of a woman he walked out on 11 years earlier. During a business trip, he encounters a woman (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh) who changes his dour outlook on his existence.
Anomalisa is on limited release from 30 December. It goes nationwide (in the US) in January.
