Review of Synecdoche, New York (2008) by Allen G — 22 Jul 2013

I've seen it three times now and I'm still struggling. This is a tough one to stay with so once you've watched it I recommend checking out its wiki page where there is some helpful analysis of some elements of the film. I find it helpful to describe a film's key theme in a single word. This is of course just my own interpretation but for me this is a film mostly about regret and if you go in with that in mind you should be able to pick lots of things out of it.

Now this is one of the most polarising films I've come across- it frequently makes top 10s and worst 10s and is admired and mocked in the same sentence. I can find things to agree with in both sides but I like this film for several key reasons. Firstly, it fits me like a glove on paper- Kuafman, Hoffman and Watson together is always going to interest me. Secondly, it is just my kind of film- I LIKE MY POST-MODERN HOKEY-KOKEY IN MOVIE FORM ONLY THANKS (and books I guess). This is also relentlessly depressing which is just soooo me. *smiles* So if you don't like depressing films (and fair enough if you don't) then stay away and if you aren't a Kaufman fan then run for the hills here.

Even if, like with me, there is much for you to enjoy here, there are still issues- it's definitely too long and that may add to the experience but it does so in an intentionally-negative way and it's worth asking if you want a film to be so effective that it actually makes the experience of watching it less-enjoyable? I like Kaufman's writing though and so the length is justified for me but for something as strange and frustrating as this one, if you don't really connect with it then the extra length will be what kicks you when you are down.

It's also fairly confusing but not as much as its reputation suggests- it's pretty in-your-face and drops plenty of clues for you to take your own things from it- it's all very heavy-handed actually.

Kaufman has a sense of humour here as usual and I think some people have got caught up in the endlessly-dark nature of the film so much so that they've missed Kaufman's touches- he picks at his flaws, it's what his films tend to do and this one sees its own flaws too and that's why I don't find this pretentious or pompous or any of the other titles often thrown at it.

It's a Kaufman film and then some though so I really can't stress enough how much you will hate this film if you aren't a fan of his' stuff.

In the end I find the journey worthwhile, if not wholly-complete. This one is actually quite similar to The Machinist in some ways if I can get away with simplifying some of the more complex elements on show here. In most cases I'd view a film like this as a failed-experiment but Kaufman goes in circles so much here that there's just as much success within his' ideas as there are things that don't fully take off.

I don't reward this film for its ambition though as to me that is a sympathy-vote. I reward it for the good things that come from that ambition- It truly is a mess, the most heavy-handed one that you'll ever come across too but if you can get trapped in its spiral then it works, it really does.

This film wants to be more than Kaufman's other works but it surely isn't- it just can't contain itself in the way that the likes of Adaptation or Eternal Sunshine... did. It gives us everything, bloody-stools and all and I like much of what I saw but will you? I honestly don't have a clue.