Anomalisa

The saddest puppets having sex you'll see all year.

By Richard Speer

Critic's Grade: B-

It's a little creepy watching a stop-motion puppet perform cunnilingus on another puppet; creepier still when the foreplay turns into outright sex. Puppets aren't supposed to fuck—are they? Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) fills his movie with jarring moments like these, when our childhood associations of stop-motion animation collide with the very grown-up story that Anomalisa tells. But while the animation is undisputably nifty-looking, it can't redeem this deeply pessimistic film. To motivational speaker Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis), everyone in the world looks and sounds exactly the same. The only person with a unique face and voice is a woman named Lisa, whom Stone meets and falls in love with at a Cincinnati hotel. Alas, just as his life is about to open up, the crushing conformity returns with a vengeance. We can never escape our ennui, the film heavy-handedly asserts. Morose and defeatist, Anomalisa might be an animated favorite for the upcoming Oscars, but it's also an early contender for feel-bad movie of 2016.

Rated R.

Willamette Week

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.