  Recent experiments have produced evidence for fractional quantum anomalous
Hall (FQAH) states at zero magnetic field in the semiconductor moir\'e
superlattice system $t$MoTe$_2$. Here we argue that a composite fermion
description, already a unifying framework for the phenomenology of 2d electron
gases at high magnetic fields, provides a similarly powerful perspective in
this new context. To this end, we present exact diagonalization evidence for
composite Fermi liquid states at zero magnetic field in $t$MoTe$_2$ at fillings
$n=\frac{1}{2}$ and $n=\frac{3}{4}$. We dub these non-Fermi liquid metals
anomalous composite Fermi liquids (ACFLs), and we argue that they play a
central organizing role in the FQAH phase diagram. We proceed to develop a long
wavelength theory for this ACFL state that offers concrete experimental
predictions upon doping the composite Fermi sea, including a Jain sequence of
FQAH states and a new type of commensurability oscillations originating from
the superlattice potential intrinsic to the system.
