Review: Synecdoche, New York

In the past, Kaufman's emotionally profound yet situationally neurotic stories like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich have been kept on the narrative straight and narrow by directors like Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze, who helped with the construction of structural and thematic consistency in Kaufman’s wildly imaginative stories. With Synecdoche, New York, that’s no longer the case. Unchecked and given free reign as both writer and director, Kaufman’s imagination soars and spirals in countless directions, creating an epic sprawl of awkwardness and profundity that’s difficult to decipher and even more difficult to appreciate.