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Synecdoche, New York (2008) |
| Overall Grade: |
C |
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| Story: |
D+ |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
B+ |
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Disappointing...
by Bruce (movies profile)
Nov 5, 2008
6
of
9 people found this review helpful
All of the weird, dark surrealism of Charlie Kaufman. Little of the whimsy and none of the suspense of his other movies. It was hard to tell where the alleged "narrative" was going, so it was hard to care about what would happen next.
Here's an example of the kind of "oddness" you will find in "Synecdoche." An awful lot of pus, poop (green no less), and urine (dark and bloody) showing up in unexpected places. Maybe it's supposed to be a metaphor about disease or something, but it was kind of distracting and gross. The images of ass-wiping and sore-oozing sure stuck with me--yuck.
Some things I liked:
-The double worlds of the actors playing real people has some nice interplay--like when the actor playing Caden starts hitting on Caden's real-life love interest.
-I cared about the characters (and waited in vain for something other than the aging process to happen to them)
-The acting was good with lots of people I like doing the best they could. Michelle Williams seemed really "present." Philip Seymour Hoffman was good as usual. And it's nice when people like Emily Watson and Dianne Wiest just show up two-thirds of the way through.
-Visually it was interesting sometimes. The sets were interesting.
It disappointed me that Kaufman, known for his original and quirky screenplays, couldn't come up with a good story for his first directing effort. |
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