Synopsis
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.
Synecdoche, New York
2008 Directed by Charlie Kaufman
Cast
Philip Seymour Hoffman Samantha Morton Jennifer Jason Leigh Michelle Williams Catherine Keener Emily Watson Tom Noonan Sadie Goldstein Hope Davis Dianne Wiest Kristen Bush Alice Drummond Amy Wright Deirdre O'Connell Elizabeth Marvel Charles Techman Tom Greer Josh Pais Lynn Cohen Jerry Adler Daisy Tahan Frank Girardeau Peter Friedman Daniel London Robert Seay Stephen Adly Guirgis Joe Lisi Michael Medeiros Christopher Evan Welch Show All…
Director
Producers
Charlie Kaufman Anthony Bregman Spike Jonze William Horberg Sidney Kimmel Bruce Toll Ray Angelic Erica Kay
Writer
Editor
Cinematography
Production Design
Art Direction
Set Decoration
Visual Effects
Jesh Murthy Glenn Allen Renuka Ballal Richard Friedlander John Bair Eric J. Robertson Scott Frankel Mark Russell Roopesh Gujar Paloma Añoveros
Composer
Sound
Costumes
Make-Up
Studios
Country
Languages
Alternative Titles
New York, Iscenesat, 紐約浮世繪, Kis-nagy világ, 纽约提喻法, Нью-Йорк, Нью-Йорк
Genre
Popular reviews
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“the end is built into the beginning”
the most ridiculous thing about living is that childhood is its own eternity and then suddenly you’re an adult. time moves faster and faster and life is sectioned off into sleeping eating working blinking repeating, and deja vu happens more and more. i forget what day of the week it is all the time. i sleep until after 5pm some days just because i can. i can go into a store and buy whatever they’ll let me and whatever i have the money for. nothing means anything but also everything means something. i work so hard and get paid almost nothing. i stare into space between customers and think of being somewhere else.…
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Watched this morning and have since been going back, rewatching scenes, figuring out how to write this review, and reading up on some other people's takes. This film is much bigger and more personal than...anything I've seen in my life. To summarize everything I have to say about this and everything it meant to me in one review would be absolutely silly. Will probably be making a video on it soon, but even that won't do it justice. Something (many things) about this film is too powerful, too personal, and too honest for me to put into words. Sometimes you just know when you've seen the best movie you've ever seen, that's what happened with Synecdoche, New York. Why am I so sad?
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Charlie Kaufman movies are really cool because they make you sob uncontrollably and regret all your life choices and also there's a silly man sleeping in the basement of a house that's on fire. That's not a good place to sleep, sillyhead!
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Get busy living, or get busy dying.
Weeks lost in one cut, years lost between scenes, lives lost in a blink of an eye. Time is slipping through our fingers. You may mind your own problems, sort your own miseries as if they are the only thing in this world worthy of your attention. You may play pretend; pretend you are a fairy, or an actor, or an actor playing an actor playing an actor. Set a daily routine for yourself as a distraction from the fact that we are all hurtling towards death. Still, before you know it, reality will catch up with you. You will suddenly wake up on what soon to be your own deathbed and realize…
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"Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but it doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope that something good will come along. Something to make you feel connected, something to make you feel whole, something to make you feel loved. And the truth is I feel so angry, and the truth is I feel so fucking sad, and the truth is I've felt so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for…
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Art is meaningless and it also means everything. Is creating art and establishing a legacy worth the suffering? Sometimes the innate struggle to determine what is "worth it" is enough to keep someone from trying at all. Sometimes trying to create something incredible that provides joy for others can cause the creator endless suffering. Life is synonymous with mess; and this movie displays that perfectly. Death is a reoccurring theme in this movie. The protagonist races the clock to create his magnum opus. Poisoned by regret and loneliness he desperately tries to embody his suffering into a play. Whether he succeeded to make something incredible or not is almost inconsequential. This movie is about accepting your insignificance. Being reminded of the meaninglessness of life in such a surreal, cruel way isn't very enjoyable for me; but at the same time I can't help but see the beauty in it.
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Conceptually complicated, thematically rich, structurally audacious, and often bleakly funny, and still I find it as suffocating and unforgiving as Charlie Kaufman appears to find his own life.
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Synecdoche, New York is baffling, weird, effusive, intoxicating, honest, and utterly perfect. It transcends the expectations of a mere film and conjures up something tangible and heartbreaking, lonely and imaginative, hopeful and yearning. Charlie Kaufman's vision rips into your soul and sets up camp, hitting your tear ducts and playing your heartstrings as every line of poetic whimsy and cosmic wit sends your state further down into different phases of confusion and awe.
Saying that this film is a keeper is an understatement, but if you asked me what it all meant, I would respond with a guffaw to end all guffaws. All I know is that I was a weeping mess by the end of it, I was fascinated…
