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