Synecdoche, New York

[thepaulo]

The movie I most want to see right now, written and directed by Charlie Kaufman.
It just made a big splash at Cannes but does not yet have a US distributor.
http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2008/05/cannes_08_noteb.html

[CHUCKWAGONCOOK]

Being John Malkavich was one of my favorite movies for awhile. This one looks good as well. I'm looking forward to it's debut too. Keep us informed of it's where abouts buddy. Plus, if you want to get together with a small handful of listeners on Monday. Myself, Ledouski and Betidont are avail. to do something. See a movie,have some lunch, drink a couple beers. Whatever. Just P.M. me. I know it's been out for a while, but I just saw "The Darjeeling Limited". I loved the artsy-depressed-happy it's not me feel the movie gave me. Great colors too. Lots of reds and yellows. What do think I should rent this week?

[thepaulo]

turns out I'm on leave until I get a doctor's note so monday afternoon/evening is fine......
pm me here or post at the thepaulo.com
otherwise i'm painting.....and no drinking for me.

[watson]

turns out I'm on leave until I get a doctor's note so monday afternoon/evening is fine......
pm me here or post at the thepaulo.com
otherwise i'm painting.....and no drinking for me.

you painting the ceiling?

[thepaulo]

This is a Phillip Seymour Hoffman movie and the trailer is awesome.

[Kublakhan61]

Opens this weekend at Landmark Sunshine in NYC - I'll be there.

[TheMojoPin]

Haw-haw, I saw it for free at the Chicago Film Festival.

[thepaulo]

Haw-haw, I saw it for free at the Chicago Film Festival.

you're so cool.

[TheMojoPin]

D'uh.

[sailor]

coincidentally, synechdoche is today's word of the day (http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2008/10/21.html).

mojo, thoughts on the flick?

[TheMojoPin]

Very good. It kind of drags a bit at the end and doesn't necessarily "work," but most of the film is very strong, especially for a first time director. It has the general vibe of a first time filmmaker not knowing what could be cut or tightened up, and I can't help but think the movie would have been even better if Kaufman had worked with Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze again instead of directing it himself. The cast is excellent, especially Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and it balances realy absurdist humor and fantasy with some surprisingly deep and heartfelt emotion rather well for almost the entire film. I'd give it like a 3.5 out of 5 if I had to, mainly due to everything the film sets up not really coming through in the end.

[fezident]

Reeeally looking forward to seeing this. I'm not a fan of PSH but, he looks like the right guy for this role.

[hammersavage]

There are non-fans of Philip Seymour Hoffman. He's the best actor on the planet for 10 years.

[hammersavage]

I saw it. And quite frankly I can't quite wrap my brain around it totally just yet.

That's a good thing, the movie was very deep, very layered. I'll think on it some.

[Gerald]

I want to see this for the far-out concept but I don't want to go too far out of my way to the area that it's currently playing on a single screen. Hopefully a theatre that's closer will have the balls to book it. I've never actually loved anything that Kaufman has been associated with because I've never found any of his characters to be likeable or interesting except for Nicolas Cage(s) in Adaptation. The problem with that movie though was the third act was a punch in the face to anyone who didn't invest ironic detachment in the prior events' unfolding.

[hammersavage]

Has anyone else seen this yet? And if so, explain why Sam Morton's house was sporadically on fire if you can.

[Philip]

I saw it. And quite frankly I can't quite wrap my brain around it totally just yet.

That's a good thing, the movie was very deep, very layered. I'll think on it some.

It will have to be seen a few of times over. It's definatily art, which doesn't always make the most interesting movies, but I liked it.

As far as why her house is constantly on fire I don't know, could be simply to set up the joke on what happens to Samantha Morton's character toward the end. Probably not though.

[thepaulo]

Has anyone else seen this yet? And if so, explain why Sam Morton's house was sporadically on fire if you can.


It's a metaphor for her impulsive and destructive nature.

[Kathleen From The Bronx]

I can't act as though I understood this movie through and through..........and I can't pretend as though I got every lil nuance..... but what I DID get about it made this movie one of my favorite films of the year. What I did understand of it made me just fuckin love this movie. I was glad it got some love at the Independent Spirit Awards.... I wouldn't have cared even if nobody blinked about it, but what I just dug and dug.....or at least a taste of what made me care about this Charlie Kaufman breakdown was this part of the film-

"Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you'll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. Even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. 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 doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope for something good to come along. Something to make you feel connected, to make you feel whole, to make you feel loved. And the truth is I'm so angry and the truth is I'm so fucking sad, and the truth is I've been so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long have been pretending I'm OK, just to get along, just for, I don't know why, maybe because no one wants to hear about my misery, because they have their own, and their own is too overwhelming to allow them to listen to or care about mine. Well, fuck everybody. Amen."

AND this tooo-

"There are millions of people in the world.And none of those people are as an extra,they're all leads in their own stories."

It's just one of those things.... It meant something to me, and I get it if nobody else gives a shit, but it was one of those things that didn't make me feel like I was NOT alone in the world, the way I think of shit- and it made me think about the kinda stuff I'd hear when I was a kid....... from my moms..... She'd say, "You never know what anyone else is goin through, so you gotta be nice."

It just makes me wanna be nice................


See?!!! I told ya I liked this movie... Sorry this is a big, fat post :0)

AND... I know it don't got nuthin to do wit nuthin all my ramblin here...... but I saw the title o' the thread was Synecdoche, New York.... so ya know..... Thanks for lettin me say some stuff here :0)

[hammersavage]

I liked that it got some love at the Independent Spirit Awards but I thought it was for the wrong category. As much as I love Charlie Kaufman, and no one thinks hes a bigger genius then me, I thought the movie would have been better in the hands of an experienced director. Spike Jonez or Michel Gondry would have made a little more sense of it all with still being true to the vision. Charlie kind of assumed people would get certain things just because he knew what he was going for.

[thepaulo]

I can't act as though I understood this movie through and through..........and I can't pretend as though I got every lil nuance..... but what I DID get about it made this movie one of my favorite films of the year. What I did understand of it made me just fuckin love this movie. I was glad it got some love at the Independent Spirit Awards.... I wouldn't have cared even if nobody blinked about it, but what I just dug and dug.....or at least a taste of what made me care about this Charlie Kaufman breakdown was this part of the film-

"Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you'll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. Even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. 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 doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope for something good to come along. Something to make you feel connected, to make you feel whole, to make you feel loved. And the truth is I'm so angry and the truth is I'm so fucking sad, and the truth is I've been so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long have been pretending I'm OK, just to get along, just for, I don't know why, maybe because no one wants to hear about my misery, because they have their own, and their own is too overwhelming to allow them to listen to or care about mine. Well, fuck everybody. Amen."

AND this tooo-

"There are millions of people in the world.And none of those people are as an extra,they're all leads in their own stories."

It's just one of those things.... It meant something to me, and I get it if nobody else gives a shit, but it was one of those things that didn't make me feel like I was NOT alone in the world, the way I think of shit- and it made me think about the kinda stuff I'd hear when I was a kid....... from my moms..... She'd say, "You never know what anyone else is goin through, so you gotta be nice."

It just makes me wanna be nice................


See?!!! I told ya I liked this movie... Sorry this is a big, fat post :0)

AND... I know it don't got nuthin to do wit nuthin all my ramblin here...... but I saw the title o' the thread was Synecdoche, New York.... so ya know..... Thanks for lettin me say some stuff here :0)

wow!

[thepaulo]

I liked that it got some love at the Independent Spirit Awards but I thought it was for the wrong category. As much as I love Charlie Kaufman, and no one thinks hes a bigger genius then me, I thought the movie would have been better in the hands of an experienced director. Spike Jonez or Michel Gondry would have made a little more sense of it all with still being true to the vision. Charlie kind of assumed people would get certain things just because he knew what he was going for.

This is not a movie you are suppose to get....It is suppose to make you stretch and grow....
then maybe....just maybe, someday you won't worry about what it all means.


of course that doesn't help the people who have to sell the movie.

[hammersavage]

This is not a movie you are suppose to get....It is suppose to make you stretch and grow....
then maybe....just maybe, someday you won't worry about what it all means.


of course that doesn't help the people who have to sell the movie.

His screenplays all do that. Malkovich isn't totally getable the second you see it. All of his stuff is deep but usually its the skill of the director to ease that without selling out the brilliance of his writing. I know Synechdoche was brilliant, but a skilled director would have made it easier to digest. I don't know if I'll EVER get some of the things in this movie.

[thepaulo]

His screenplays all do that. Malkovich isn't totally getable the second you see it. All of his stuff is deep but usually its the skill of the director to ease that without selling out the brilliance of his writing. I know Synechdoche was brilliant, but a skilled director would have made it easier to digest. I don't know if I'll EVER get some of the things in this movie.

The biggest "issue" with Synecdoche is that it's whole thrust is depressive. Those elements that might allieviate it's downward trajectory are too little too late. I have no problem with depressing films normally but I saw it as part of a double screening with Seven Pounds right in the middle of when I was going through the worst of my personal problems. Still I think it's brilliant but something of a brilliant failure. The story is what it is and a different director could only have made it more palatable by changing the material alltogether.

[hammersavage]

I disagree. This story is no more out there than Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine. Those directors sacrificed nothing to show his story. Again, I liked this film but a different director could have gotten the vision over more clearly without changing the meaning.

[thepaulo]

I disagree. This story is no more out there than Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine. Those directors sacrificed nothing to show his story. Again, I liked this film but a different director could have gotten the vision over more clearly without changing the meaning.

Out there is not the problem. Synedoche is almost ridiculously depressing. It's a black comedy like the others but the arc is ever downward. The ending....we can surely agree that the ending is the ultimate downer.

[hammersavage]

I personally didn't care how depressing it was. I find most of his work depressing. Confusing can be a problem.

[thepaulo]

I personally didn't care how depressing it was. I find most of his work depressing. Confusing can be a problem.


Confusing is good as long as parts of it are uplifting and fun.
Synecdoche is a problem because it is obsessive and depressive. There are actually uplifting and fun moments but......
eventually it's the downward and ever more relentless nature of the story that can't be overcome. That doesn't mean it isn't one of the best films of the years,
just one that had too few fans.

[hammersavage]

See, that's the nonsense I was talking about.

The depression of it has no bearing on if it was a good film. The complexity of the narrative by a director who wrote the screenplay and assumed the audience would get everything is the problem.

[thepaulo]

See, that's the nonsense I was talking about.

The depression of it has no bearing on if it was a good film. The complexity of the narrative by a director who wrote the screenplay and assumed the audience would get everything is the problem.

I agree. The depression of it has no bearing on if it was a good film.

Complexity, depression and confusion can affect how people respond to it.
It was a given that this was going to be a hard sell to an audience from the get go.

I think the problem here is, is the film enetertaining enough given it's challenging subject matter? Could a more experienced director have injected more appealing qualities and still retained the point of the story?

I think Kaufman did a good job directing. Still he made a film that he knew would be beyond the grasp of most people.

[thepaulo]

I've been rewatching the DVD. It really is quite remarkable. I think I should start a thread about films that defy logic. Probably the most exasperating movie ever made.

[Gerald]

Still haven't seen this. What's wrong with me.

[thepaulo]

Still haven't seen this. What's wrong with me.
some fascinating extras including an interview with Kaufman and a roundtable of critics talking about how misunderstood the film was.