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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 2016)
MOVIES TIX $6 BY RICK LEVIN $2 $2 matinee $1 off Sun Tues $2 stud/SEN *NEW* ALL AGES MICHAEL STONE, VOICED BY DAVID THEWLIS FRI JAN 29TH - THUR FEB 4TH 7 OSCAR NOMINATIONS 7:05, 9:30 7:20, 9:15 2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS THE INTERN 7:15 4:55 ALL AGES, ALL THE TIME WELCOME TO HOTEL FREGOLI Encircle Film Series presents Charlie Kaufman fucks with reality once again in animated feature Anomalisa W elcome to the Hotel Fregoli Charlie Kaufman fucks with reality once again in animated film Anomalisa The screenwriter and occasional director Charlie Kaufman has been delightfully gas-lighting moviegoers since 1999’s Being John Malkovich, a film that takes place, quite literally, inside the head of John Malkovich. Like Rod Serling before him, Kaufman loves to knock everything just slightly off kilter, creating an existential free fall that is at once exhilarating and upsetting. Using wry humor to offset his philosophical heebie-jeebies, Kaufman’s what-if movies pry open absurd cracks in accepted reality until a plausible explanation of our human condition emerges. Is this the definition of surrealism? I don’t know. And I don’t know what to think about Kaufman’s latest film, other than it’s quite good. Anomalisa is an animated feature that employs the old-fashioned stop-motion technique — a technique that, like puppetry, is disarmingly effective in creating an aura of real-life reality. The “characters” in this film are at once less than human and more so. In that less-more gap, a kind of emotional urgency brews up unexpectedly. On its surface, Kaufman’s film, which he co-directed with Duke Johnson, couldn’t be more ordinary and uneventful, almost dull. Michael Stone (the voice of David Thewlis), a self-help author suffering a mid-life crisis, flies to Cincinnati to deliver a lecture; he checks into the Hotel Fregoli (the Fregoli delusion is the belief that all people are actually the same person); he dials up a jilted ex-lover for drinks; he meets a woman, Lisa, in the hotel and they have sex. Sounds like any other weekend in Cincinnati, right? But, this being Kaufman’s world, there are the expected fissures in reality, one of them not just figurative: a small line, a crack, runs from the corner of every character’s face, giving it a mask-like, robotic appearance. And it doesn’t take long to realize that, aside from Michael, everyone in the world, male and female, has the exact same voice (the gentle coo of Tom Noonan) and general appearance. Could it be that Michael is such a pathological narcissist that everyone is simply a projection of his miserable self? Or, just perhaps, is he yet another cog in the replicated matrix of consumerism, trapped in a brave new world of manufactured consent? What a mind fuck. When, halfway through the movie, Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) appears with her distinct voice and blemished face, it’s almost impossible not to fall in love with her, because love, for Michael, and perhaps for all of us, is simply relief from the monotony of life — a suspicion horribly confirmed in a nightmare Michael has after he sleeps with Lisa, his beautiful “anomaly” of a woman. (And speaking of sex: the scene of Lisa and Michael in bed marks an unprecedented moment in the history of cinema; it is almost excruciatingly realistic, a protracted coupling that is at once touching and wince-inducing. If for no other reason, see the movie for this segment.) The animation of Anomalisa suits Kaufman’s absurdist temperament eerily well. In doing away with real actors — in doing away with the so-called real world — he’s able to dig more deeply into the human condition by combining the ordinary and fantastic, the deep and the shallow, in a way that is otherwise just not feasible. When an already manipulated reality begins to fall apart, the effects are jarring, as though the suspension of disbelief is being turned inward upon its own mechanisms of perception. (Bijou Metro) IMAX: STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS3D (PG-13) ★ Fri. - Sat.1210 320 705 1015 FIFTY SHADES OF BLACK [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1205 225) 455 740 1010 JANE GOT A GUN (R) Fri. - Sat.(1145 215) 445 715 950 KUNG FU PANDA 3 [CC,DV] (PG) ★ Fri. - Sat.(1130 230) 430 730 930 KUNG FU PANDA 3 3D [CC,DV] (PG) ★ Fri. - Sat.(1200 200) 500 700 1000 THE FINEST HOURS [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1230 PM) 1005 PM THE FINEST HOURS 3D [CC,DV] (PG-13) ★ Fri. - Sat.(330 PM) 645 PM DIRTY GRANDPA [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1235) 425 725 1030 THE 5TH WAVE [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1215) 435 720 1025 THE BOY [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1220) 420 650 925 13 HOURS: SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1150 305) 620 935 RIDE ALONG 2 [CC,DV] (PG-13)Fri. - Sat.(1225) 450 735 1035 THE HATEFUL 8 [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.940 PM DADDY'S HOME [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1135 210) 440 710 THE REVENANT [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1125 255) 625 955 STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1140 250) 635 945 THE BIG SHORT [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1155 310) 630 1020 KUNG FU PANDA 3 [CC,DV] (PG) ★ Fri. - Sat.(1145 AM) 435 PM 940 PM KUNG FU PANDA 3 3D [CC,DV] (PG) ★ Fri. - Sat.(210 PM) 715 PM THE FINEST HOURS [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1215 PM) 1000 PM THE FINEST HOURS 3D [CC,DV] (PG-13) ★ Fri. - Sat.(345 PM) 700 PM DIRTY GRANDPA [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(115) 420 730 1020 THE 5TH WAVE [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1245) 400 720 1000 THE BOY [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(100) 410 740 1010 THE REVENANT [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1200 320) 645 1015 STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(330 PM) 630 PM STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS 3D [CC, (PG-13) ★ Fri. - Sat.(1230 PM) 930 PM KUNG FU PANDA 3 [CC,DV] (PG) ★ Fri. - Sat.(1130 1200 230) 430 500 930 KUNG FU PANDA 3 3D [CC,DV] (PG) ★ Fri. - Sat.(200 PM) 700 PM THE BOY [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(100) 400 725 950 THE REVENANT [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1145 320) 630 940 THE BIG SHORT [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.645 PM 1000 PM A portrait of community and compassion in a ND oil boom town Bijou on 13th | Feb. 4 at 6PM Audience discussion with fi lmmaker Jesse Moss following the fi lm www.theovernighters.com 13 HOURS:THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI (DIG) (R) 11:55, 3:35, 7:00, 10:20 THE 5TH WAVE (DIG) (PG-13) 10:50, 1:35, 4:20, 7:05, 9:55 THE BOY (DIG) (PG-13) 11:35, 2:25, 5:10, 7:55, 10:25 BROOKLYN (DIG) (PG-13) 10:55, 1:40, 4:25, 7:20, 10:05 DADDY’S HOME (DIG) (PG-13) 11:45, 2:30, 5:00, 7:40, 10:10 DIRTY GRANDPA (DIG) (R) 11:25, 2:10, 4:50, 7:35, 10:10 FIFTY SHADES OF BLACK (DIG) (R) 11:50, 2:15, 5:05, 7:50, 10:30 THE FINEST HOURS (3D) (PG-13) SPECIAL EVENT PRICING: $3.00 UPCHARGE ALL TICKETS 11:00, 4:40, 10:20 THE FINEST HOURS (DIG) (PG-13) 1:50, 7:30 THE GOOD DINOSAUR (DIG) (PG) 11:40, 2:20, 4:55, 7:25, 10:00 THE HATEFUL EIGHT (DIG) (R) 6:10, 9:50 JANE GOT A GUN (DIG) (R) 11:30, 2:05, 4:35, 7:15, 9:45 KUNG FU PANDA 3 (3D) (PG) SPECIAL EVENT PRICING: $3.00 UPCHARGE ALL TICKETS 11:00, 4:05, 5:15, 10:15 KUNG FU PANDA 3 (DIG) (PG) 12:15, 1:30, 2:45, 6:30, 7:45, 9:00 NORM OF THE NORTH (DIG) (PG) 11:05, 1:25, 3:45 THE REVENANT (DIG) (R) 11:10, 2:40, 6:15, 9:55 RIDE ALONG 2 (DIG) (PG-13) 11:20, 1:55, 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 SISTERS (DIG) (R) 11:15, 2:00, 4:45, 7:30, 10:15 STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS (3D) (PG-13) SPECIAL EVENT PRICING: $3.00 UPCHARGE ALL TICKETS 12:00, 10:25 STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS (DIG) (PG-13) 3:40, 7:15 Times For 01/29 - 01/30 © 2016 EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • JANUARY 28, 2016 21
