http://www.avclub.com/review/charlie-kaufman-works-his-heady-magic-time-puppets-229905#comment-2445208657

Mr. Random • 5 months ago What I kinda liked, and thought was pretty sad, is the ending scene with Lisa. We only see it for a second, but as she finishes her letter, her friend turns to her and smiles. And if you notice, it's not the same face as everyone else's. It's different. What Michael is experiencing is solely of himself. Solely his own experiences and prejudices. It's telling I guess then the final parts of the film are with how he is controlling Lisa so he can hear her voice, and yet his final lament is that he has no one to talk to. He can't talk to anyone because he controls the conversation. He can't look at everyone as individuals because he thinks of everyone as bland and boring and the same. Lisa's voice starts changing when he's reminded of his cab driver. Once he's reminded that Lisa's human.... He starts to view her as just another... Human. Unique and utterly dismissable. Lisa doesn't seem to suffer that. While, self conscious, weak willed, and shy, she seems to be happy. She seems to want to look for the happiness in the MESSED UP situation Michael places her in. She looks for the happiness. She wants to make sure Michael's family is okay. That they feel okay, even if she never saw them. She seems to fully embody all the things that Michael preaches, to look for the individual in the unique mass of humanity. Michael can't. He won't. I think the message isn't that we're all alone. I think it's that if we ever want to be alone. We can be. But if we want to be with people, to truly be a part of the community and see others. We have to want to know others. Not just want to not be alone, but want to know who they are.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/12/anomalisa_review_a_cartoon_for_adults_only.html

Charlie Kaufman tells the newest, oldest stories. New because they begin at the oddest points. Like a secret passage into John Malkovich's brain. Or a memory-erasing machine that can leave you with a spotless mind. Old because in the end, their story is almost always the same story. I met someone once who I knew I could never live without. And then, one day, I found out I'd have to.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/movies/review-anomalisa-pairs-charlie-kaufman-and-lonely-puppets.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

Lisa turns out to be the exception to this manufactured nightmare (she’s the anomaly of the title), and Michael falls hard. “Your voice!” he cries out in wonder, a moment of lyricism that the filmmakers tuck in between unbuttoned clothes and an admirably uncomfortable, honest sex scene. Lisa may seem like a mess — she voluntarily enumerates her supposed failings, like someone who’s memorized other people’s criticisms of her — yet she’s glorious. And Ms. Leigh, who brings Lisa to trembling life with soft mewls of feeling, perfectly timed pauses and a poignant a cappella rendition of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” makes you see how much is at stake both for her and Michael. Whether he can hear her is one heartskippingly moving question; whether he deserves to is another.

http://time.com/4157259/anomalisa-movie-review/

How many love, or nonlove, stories have begun this way? Kaufman (making his first film since his 2008 directorial debut, Synecdoche, NY) and Johnson (whose credits include Adult Swim’s Moral Orel) work hard to make us feel something for this man who’s capable of feeling so little for others, and the idea of using puppets to tell a story about intensely human experiences is inspired, to a point. But then we have to actually look at them: Their skin has a powdery, latexy, semi-translucent glow—they’re more like embryos than actual grown-ups, which is perhaps part of the point. Michael is a shell of a person, struggling to be a person. But he’s also a megalomaniac, a reality the film doesn’t quite cop to: He doesn’t recognize that every other human being is alone in his or her skin too. And once you start reckoning with Anomalisa’s obsession with self-absorption, the novelty of this one-man pity party begins to wear off. A little puppet pain goes a long way.

http://www.laweekly.com/film/charlie-kaufman-has-directed-his-second-masterpiece-6045163