Anomalisa

Anomalisa is a 2015 American adult animated film directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson from a screenplay by Kaufman, based on his 2005 audio play of the same name that explores the Fregoli delusion, a term Kaufman used as a pen name for himself. It incorporates elements of psychological drama, romantic comedy, and self-reflexive fiction, in a similar vein as Kaufman's film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Anomalisa follows the British middle-aged customer service expert Michael Stone (David Thewlis), who perceives everyone (Tom Noonan) as identical except for Lisa Hesselman (Jennifer Jason Leigh), whom he meets in a Cincinnati hotel.

Kaufman's audio play premiered in Los Angeles, and featured the voices of Thewlis, Noonan, and Leigh. He opposed adapting the play into a film, fearing loss of artistic merit, but began exploring the idea in 2012 after incorporating edits to the script. Filming faced delays as Starburns Industries initially secured production funding on Kickstarter only to adapt the play as a short film, with stop-motion animation beginning in late 2013. The filmmakers faced struggles with animation technology, a notoriously laborious medium. This was alleviated after Paramount Pictures joined production, enabling the film to be expanded to a feature.