Review of Synecdoche, New York (2008) by Jack G — 22 Jul 2011

It can easily be seen as pretentious, as it deals with life on such a broad scale that to come to any definite conclusions is preposterous - right? But what stops this film from being like that for me, is also it's flaw. Kaufman throws so many surreal and conflicting ideas at the audience that it's incredibly hard to decipher, and a lot of these are simply concepts that aren't fully realised, and it's over-ambitious in this respect. Because of this too, it provides a seemingly infinite supply of brain food, so much to unpack literally and metaphorically that I could watch it again and again. The only time that doesn't apply to the vague escape from pretentiousness is the monologue by the vicar/priest actor. What I found entertaining by that speech however, was how Kaufman looks like he is aware of exactly the boundaries he is crossing - and mocks himself whilst writing the best single piece of dialogue he has ever written.

Kaufman is a genius I'm sure, but that comes with all the obscurities and defects that come from someone so obviously bursting with ideas.