Charlie Kaufman: Ranking All 8 Films Worst To Best

Kaufman's experiment with the world of animation and claymation in particular did not disappoint. Anomalisa follows an irritable and disillusioned man named Michael who sees everyone as the same in a very literal sense. Everyone has the same face and voice, no matter their gender or age. This proves to be a struggle until he meets a woman who has unique features and a different voice; until he meets Lisa.

Michael's extreme paranoia that everyone is the same person except for himself and Lisa is a classic Kaufman choice of narrative. Michael questions his own reality and the concept of everyone else looking the same works particularly well in animation.

The film is smart and surprisingly heartfelt, if a little stretched thin. Anomalisa was originally supposed to be a short film and you can definitely see that as the plot itself really only takes up about a third of the running time. The rest is dedicated to the extremely impressive skills of the animation team as we watch Michael do otherwise menial and mundane tasks that no doubt took months to animate.

It also features a rather uncomfortable sex scene that cannot be unseen.