Synecdoche, New York(2008)- User Reviews

Wow. I was first crushed to learn that "Synecdoche, NY" had its limited release and gone to DVD, as I'd waited for it with great anticipation. But it's a film that is truly best served by full control, a theme the film itself explores. There were moments I was grateful for the remote: lines of dialogue that needed reconsideration; great nuances and entendre; crushing moments so painful they had to be walked off on "pause, then taken again after a moment of inuring. This saved me frustration and an immediate second viewing, and delivered the richness of the piece fully for me on the first pass.

I think there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who are ready for S,NY and those who aren't. In the latter group, three subcategories: those unwilling or unequipped to work for its complexities and depth, those utterly unprepared for the stark brutality of its truth, and those who suffer from both limitations. This is not a "Passion of the Christ" where, even if you are skeptical, you can see the film and decide for yourself. If you even suspect that a "challenging" film of grim theme is not your cup of tea, just do yourself a favor and skip this. But if you are literate, philosophical, poetic, cynical, aging ungracefully, or in anyway haunted by people and the way we are, this film is required viewing. There are moments of such raw truth that you have to pinch yourself to make sure you're not simply having an epiphany.

For example, there were numerous places in the film where, despite the dialogue being abstract, I called out the next, non-sequitir line before it was delivered. It's by no means a predicatble film; it's just that intuitively honest. It has it's obscurities (the names of the lead character and the label on a doorbell are both rare mental disorders), but they're worth wiki'ing to keep up with the piece. The whole thing's like a bad dream you just have to find the interpretation of to divine its meaning.

I was the perfect viewer, as I'd avoided reading about the film. It's early, aggressive cuttiness jolted me appropriately into the film's increasingly-skewed and symbollic logic. Two parts Woody Allen, one part Terry Gilliam, this film is like some kind of cerebral deathmatch between Felini and David Lynch. Any moment of the film could be written off as pretentious, were it not for the exquisite veracity of the observation being made.

Kaufman hits a grand slam here. Synecdoche, New York is what cinema is all about: visual, challenging, painful, complex, and addicitve. It is difficult to watch the first time through, yet calls to you to see it again as soon as you can make the time. This is one of those rare films that, like it or not, will stimulate hours of conversation over a fine French roast after you and your friends have see it.

Superb!