Early Buzz: Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa Is “Simply Brilliant Or Brilliantly Simple”
You probably knowCharlie Kaufmanfrom his screenplay contributions to Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry’s filmography, which includesBeing John Malkovich, Adaptation.andEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Or you might even have even seen his 2008 directorial debutSynecdoche New York, which we’veanalyzed on the podcastandin a series of videos.
Kaufman’s newest film Anomalisa made its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival over the weekend, and we have rounded up the early buzz. The film is notable not only because Kaufman’s involvement but it is the auteur’s first stop-motion film. The story is about “a man crippled by the mundanity of his life” and $406,237 of the project’s projected $8 million budget wasfunded on kickstarter. Hit the jump to find out the early reactions in the first Anomalisa reviews.
First here is the description of the film from the Telluride Film Festival program:
Fasten your seatbelts. Michael Stone, spending the night in a Cincinnati hotel on business, is beset by a dramatic stream of insane and intense characters. Just before he spirals into desperation, he finds escape through a surprising, astonishingly tender erotic encounter. If the preceding description seems enigmatic, it’s because revealing anything more might spoil the intricate, tragicomic dreamscape created by Charlie Kaufman (SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK) and Duke Johnson (the Adult Swim series “Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole” and “Moral Orel”). ANOMALISA is animated, with wondrous stop motion; David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh and the gifted Tom Noonan do the voice honors, superbly; and Carter Burwell’s string-based score is perfect. We know Charlie Kaufman’s status as a visionary and one of the American filmmakers who really matters; we can now discover Duke Johnson as a major creative force. –LG
Early Anomalisa Reviews And Reactions
Heres a sample of reactions from twitter:
Felt a split-second flash from “that’s it?” to “that’s it!” as the lovely, unexpectedly simple but quiveringly exploratory ANOMALISA ended.
— Guy Lodge (@GuyLodge)July 08, 2025
ANOMALISA gives us the best Jennifer Jason Leigh since at least 2007. Match that, “greatest actors' director” QT. I’ll be elated if you do.
Anomalisa – Not sure if it’s simply brilliant, or brilliantly simple, but coming from Kaufman I know there’s depth. “Don’t forget to smile.”
— Alex B. (@firstshowing)July 08, 2025
As with every Charlie Kaufman movie, it will be swimming around in my mind for days. I really dug the style & the characters in Anomalisa.
Among its many other virtues, ANOMALISA takes onscreen puppet sex to a whole new level. It’s a long way from TEAM AMERICA.#venezia72
— Jill Lawless (@JillLawless)June 15, 2025
One way or another, by hook or by crook, Charlie Kaufman is goung to take us down another morose, gloomy, lonely-guy rabbit hole. Yeah!
— Hollywood Elsewhere (@wellshwood)August 12, 2025
“Anomalisa” checklist: I’m lonely, we’re all clueless & miserable, I smoke, I’m a dickish horndog, I urinate, I’m a pudgebod, fuck my life.
What does it mean to be a flabby-bellied author-puppet with a dick & detachable mouth-jaw who likes martinis and hurts the women he fucks?
What’s it mean to be human and aching as I sit in a Telluride theatre & watch a smartly gloomy Charlie Kaufman film about a depressed dick?
And here are some actual quotes from reviews:
The Playlist:
FirstShowing:
Hollywood Reporter:
Kaufman and Johnson create a vivid, dismally relatable world here, both droll and dreary, but fascinating precisely because of its numbing banality."
