It’s similar to Lolita (the novel, not the movie). Everything visible to the audience in the world is filtered through the perception of this very unlikeable protagonist, and we struggle to find an objective view on the situation even if we know better than him. Likewise, the movie sets up a challenge to empathize with any of the characters other than himself or Lisa because he has decided they are not real people and therefore the audience only sees them as the affectless generic puppet. I think the main reason the film went with puppets instead of live action is to avoid representing actual reality in any way whatsoever.
To the extent that the film is critical of the rest of the world/humanity other than this one guy, it might be because the world made him this way. Except that he’s chosen to actively spread commoditization ideology as far and wide as he can, so really it’s all his fault and he is hardly a victim. Lisa, on the other hand, has been “captured” by his speeches before they even met, so in a sense she is his prisoner like Dolores is Humbert’s.
I dunno, I keep making natural and uncritical connections to great novels when I think about it movie, and it’s doing something very unique and unforgettable, so I can’t really see it as less than great itself TBH.
it might be worth finishing it! i was starting to feel alarmed around that point too but it’s much more knowing than it lets on in the first half. the movie definitely feels sort of sad about the piece of shit main character but it also definitely knows he’s a piece of shit
The entire first generation of 3d console games, for better and worse, is defined by “weird, awkward”. It’s a miracle that Mario 64 and OoT ended up as polished as they are.
Well I know this, but it was so weird because otherwise, the details of the woman were pretty decently fleshed out as being from Northeastern Ohio (she was from Akron in the movie, iirc). It just made this one little off detail stick out so weirdly. Also literally everyone in Cinci does ask if you’ve seen the zoo or had the (really strange local version of) chili, so that was pretty accurate as well.
It’s also extremely irritating to have your town portrayed as generic middle American cipher by people who have clearly never been there
A whole season of that American Crimeheads show or whatever it’s called took place where I grew up and I think they shot like… One random establishing shot in the town itself? Why not just make up a new city at that point
Yeah, that is part of it. I think what was frustrating is some of the other little details he got right, which made “the 71” (people in Ohio just call it 71, or I71) stick out so much. I mean, I am not even from Cinci, but I’ve been there enough to know some of it. At least Anamolisa had the puppet/claymation excuse; there really isn’t much of one when you are live action except budget.
I paid a lot to kickstart anomalisa and those motherfuckers never sent me my digital copy and I stubbornly refuse to see it any other way even though charlie kaufman is one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers.