‘Anomalisa’ Character Featurettes: Meet The Extraordinary, Ordinary Leads Of Charlie Kaufman’s Stop-Motion Drama
Leave it toCharlie Kaufmanto take what sounds like an ill-advised gag and turn it into one of the year’s most affectingly, heartbreakingly human films.Anomalisais a romantic drama shot in stop-motion with a cast of puppets. But this isn’tTeam America: World Police– Kaufman and his co-directorDuke Johnsonplay it completely straight, giving their universe a relatively realistic look.
Anchoring this unusual presentation are two extraordinarily ordinary leads, Michael Stone (voiced byDavid Thewlis) and Lisa Hesselman (voiced byJennifer Jason Leigh). A pair ofAnomalisacharacter featurettes get up close and personal with the duo, and you can watch them after the jump.
You might expect Kaufman and Johnson to take advantage of stop-motion by crafting wacky-looking characters and fantastical settings, butAnomalisafocuses on the totally mundane. As Thewlis describes him, Michael is a “lonely” and “disappointed” man in “deep anguish.” Leigh (who is having quite the winter between this andHateful Eight) describes her own character as “very ordinary” and “incredibly self-deprecating,” but unlike Michael, Lisa has “made her peace” with who she is. You don’t reallyneedstop-motion or puppets to tell a story like this, but in Kaufman and Johnson’s hands it comes alive. Watch them at work below:
Paramount is givingAnomalisaa limited rollout starting this week.
Michael Stone, husband, father and respected author of “How May I Help You Help Them?” is a man crippled by the mundanity of his life. On a business trip to Cincinnati, where he’s scheduled to speak at a convention of customer service professionals, he checks into the Fregoli Hotel. There, he is amazed to discover a possible escape from his desperation in the form of an unassuming Akron baked goods sales rep, Lisa, who may or may not be the love of his life. A beautifully tender and absurdly humorous dreamscape, from the brilliant minds of Charlie Kaufman (SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK) and Duke Johnson (“Community” episode, Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas), this stop-motion animation wonder features the vocal cast of Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan and David Thewlis and a stirring strings-based score by Carter Burwell. The darkly comedic and surreal stop-motion journey of a man’s long night of the soul, ANOMALISA confirms Charlie Kaufman’s place amongst the most important of American filmmakers, and announces Duke Johnson as a major creative force.
