Synecdoche, New York poster & wallpaper

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

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70% liked it

44,880 ratings

Critics

67% liked it

163 critics

R, 2 hrs. 3 min.

Directed by: Charlie Kaufman

Release Date: October 24, 2008

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DVD Release Date: March 31, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (3,089)

  • ceWEBrity
    November 5, 2009
    ceWEBrity
    Synecdoche, New York is a piping hot load of art-house horse shit, masquerading as a million things but not really giving us any reason to be invested in any of them. At large the movie would seem to present itself as some metatheatrical look into art, life, and creation, through...( read more) the eyes of a Kaufman-esque (played with investment but no real stretching by Philip Seymour Hoffman) and brimming with humor utterly absurd enough to distort the fourth wall. That humor, along with the exaggerated musical cues, and the squarely unimaginative casting of Seymour Hoffman, and some really awful late-game passes at emotional string pulling, would seem to be Kaufman's devices to make the movie accessible to us. Whether that was his intention or not, or even if it was his intention to make them all deliriously bad, the movie is immediately and irreparably dishonest for trying to establish a connection through tried-and-true cliches. The fact that it knows that they are cliches does not change that; it's essentially looking a viewer in the eye and saying with a wink "hey, this is stuff that works on people in ~LESSER MOVIES~, so why shouldn't it work for you here too, heh heh". And maybe that helps some viewers to feel better about themselves, smarter perhaps, but here it looks like a movie's vain struggle to make itself seem unimpeachably intelligent and wholly focused and thoughtful. Far. Fucking. From it.

    And look, we all know that Kaufman plays around with narratives that break the fourth wall and the perceptions of reality and all that shit. We loved it in Being John Malkovich, we loved it in Eternal Sunshine, we loved it in Adaptation. Here I could only wonder what's given him the right to put together this narcissistic fantasia of the three, short of 20 million dollars' worth of masturbatory self-interest. I would never decry an auteur for pursuing his personal interests in the cinematic medium and then releasing it for others to indulge in, but it doesn't mean that I automatically have to enjoy or even appreciate the finished product. This plays like Kaufman's Greatest Hits, a movie self-referential in its self-reference and so on until it spirals out into some horrifying Escher pattern. Any third grader can do that. His only true aim in creating Synecdoche, New York was to encompass as many themes and tones and possible and then shield his condemning lack of focus with the umbrella of metafiction. Even the film's grandest conceit, a life-sized copy of New York inside a theater in New York, reflects this, and yet to what end? By the time Kaufman had exhausted his bag of tricks, I had checked out of this tiresome slog, taking nothing from the film except a newfound disdain for these supposedly "clever" narratives. I'm scared to ever watch Adaptation again.

    Essentially, Synecdoche says "fuck you I do what I want" to its befuddled audience, and in concept I do admire that temerity. If one thing can be said for the film, it's that it is ambitious. Expecting a viewer to accept, ruminate on, and defend every single aspect of a film where not even the film is interested in defending them just smacks of arrogance to me. The movie is stiflingly arrogant and enamored with itself, and for all the emotional payloads and philosophical mumblings about life it may have tried to put forth, I simply couldn't have cared about any of them.
  • gor41
    October 18, 2009
    gor41
    Achingly pretentious exercise in narrative games which requires supreme concentration to follow but does reward perseverance with a desolate performance from Hoffman at its heart.
  • evillincoln
    October 4, 2009
    evillincoln
    I just didn't like it that much, I can't believe I am going to use these words but it was just to arty and depressing.
  • columbiatch
    October 2, 2009
    columbiatch
    First of all, this is one fucking pretentious movie exploring some ideas that were much better executed in Rivette's films in less pretentious and grand fashion. Second, I prefer more immediate and subtle ways to express the profound ideas in life over Kaufman's bombastic, misera...( read more)blist approach which make these big contrived tragic gestures to illustrate the most obvious things like aging and mortality. It would at least make the film more credible if it doesn't vacillate between genuine empathy and self parody. Plus with exception to Hoffman character who's obviously a stand in for Kaufman, none of the characters come across as believable. This is pretty much saying again that the film is very heavyhanded in getting its points across. It doesn't help the aesthetics are totally bland with conventional shot-reverse-shots.
  • mrpopcorn
    October 2, 2009
    mrpopcorn
    "I breathe your name on every exhalation"

    A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

    REV
    ...( read more)IEW
    Synecdoche, New York is a firecracker display that sets the audience up for a grand epic of adventures then sputters its lovable way through over two hours of loosely connected views of life as we live it - through the eyes of an increasingly physically disabled director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Trying to summarize what the story is and does is always as risky task when it comes to Charlie Kaufman films and the audience for this work will be decidedly separated between the love it or hate it division.

    Kaufman manages to address so many issues (marriage, adultery, joblessness, that thin thread of sanity that keeps actors committed to impossibly complex problematic productions, etc) that keeping up with the nonlinear story line is challenging at best. But with a cast of characters as finely portrayed by actors such as Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Hope Davis, Michelle Williams, Jennifer Jason Leigh et al, the whole crazy film works wonders on the imagination. This is pure entertainment for the sake of entertainment and while Caden Cotard does represent Everyman searching for some semblance of meaning in a universe that makes little sense (except that death is inevitable!), it is the process more than the dialogue that makes this film such a pleasure to follow. Charlie Kaufman has done it again.
  • ephremishac
    November 17, 2009
    ephremishac
    Fantastic and very deep . It is worth watching and great for meditation...
  • steakncheese
    November 17, 2009
    steakncheese
    Definitely going to be seen as pretentious and depressing by most, especially on the initial viewing, but there are some moving performances and a lot of heart. Kaufman has great vision and brings a brutally honest touch to his directorial debut. There is a lot in this movie that...( read more) is left open to your interpretation, or at least there are some things that will be completely missed by some.

    Some will see this as a brave and brilliant film, others as heavy handed and miserable. For me, it's a tough pill to swallow at times but there is still a great deal of reward for the right viewer.
  • spaulsson
    November 16, 2009
    spaulsson
    If you insist on understanding everything that happens in a movie you will call this pretentious crap, but if you find the world utterly confusing (like me) and is looking for atmospere, you will love it. It is stunningly beautiful both storywise and in the cinematography. Hoffma...( read more)n and the rest of the cast performs nothing less than outstanding. Charlie Kaufman did it with "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", he did it with "Human Nature", and now he has done it again.
  • mattman1989
    November 13, 2009
    mattman1989
    "I will be dying and so will you, and so will everyone here. That's what I want to explore. We're all hurtling towards death, yet here we are for the moment, alive. Each of us knowing we're going to die, each of us secretly believing we won't."

    This film has recieved some very...( read more) mixed reviews and, after watching it, I can kind of see why. Personally, this film blew me away, but it's certainly not for everyone. Unlike many movies, this one doesn't set out to tell it's viewer what to think. Kaufman allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions and really connect with the movie. If you're looking for something 'arty' and thought provoking, then you'll love it. But it's not an easy watch. Ultimately it draws on the lonliness of life, struggling to understand your place and the desperate longing for something to come along and allow you to connect with the world. It drives across such a powerful, yet haunting message, that we spend our entire lives asking questions, looking for a meaning, right up until our very last breath. While it's outlook is pretty bleak, it's undeniably in touch with something, I think, everyone feels at some stage in their lives. If anything, it serves as a message that there's no one watching over you ready to help, you have to create your own destiny. Despite this, it's dark humour offers a few unexpected laughs. It takes some energy to watch this film but, for me, the final pay off made it all worth while. This film really is a work of art and has reaffirmed my faith in the fact that truely intelligent films can still be made. After all, it's quite a risk to throw millions of dollars at such a risky production. In this case, it more than payed off.
  • dbmp1971
    November 10, 2009
    dbmp1971
    Total mindfuck - in a good way.

View All Synecdoche, New York Reviews

Critic Reviews

May 15, 2009
Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times

The controlled romantic madness of Kaufman's best work becomes a world of symbolic and thematic promiscuity at once lifeless and inchoate. Too many ideas interbreed as wit goes to the wall. full review

December 17, 2008
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

It seems more like an illustration of his script than a full-fledged movie, proving how much he needs a Spike Jonze or a Michel Gondry to realize his surrealistic conceits. full review

November 20, 2008
Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com

You could quite possibly be enthralled -- or not. full review

November 14, 2008
Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

Screenwriter Kaufman's first venture as a director is audacious, ambitious, amazing. It's also intricate, self-referencing, and all-encompassing. full review

November 14, 2008
Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun

As the movie rambles along with its own brand of quasi-magical surrealism, the links to real experience grow scarcer and more frayed. full review

November 10, 2008
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

I found it bracing, and genuinely in touch with the sweet chaos and ache of life. full review

November 7, 2008
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

I was struck by the peculiar magic of this film, even moved by it, once I gave up all attempts to understand it as a straightforward linear narrative. full review

November 7, 2008
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

Synecdoche, New York comes as close as any film has to explaining the epic indignity of the creative process, how some great works collapse beneath their own abstraction. full review

November 6, 2008
Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com

Kaufman's directorial debut is a piece of performance art that drips with intangible meaning, but lacks any sort of drive that compels the viewer to invest in this punishing two hours of furious artis... full review

November 6, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

This is a film with the richness of great fiction. full review

View more Synecdoche, New York reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • vivekmisfit
    May 1, 2009
    vivekmisfit
    " I know how to do it now. There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due."

    one of the best films ever made. i'm amazed by charle kaufman's writing & directing

    hands down "THE BEST FILM EVER MADE"
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