Synedoche, New York (15)

If one has the choice between doing something original or something good, choose to do something good. If one has the choice between showing one's intelligence or one's compassion, choose to show the compassion. Kaufman doesn't agree. Shitnecdoche New York is all about showing off, with a very unpleasant view of life. Best avoided unless you're a grown-up with the heart of an angst-laden emo teen (It's all so unfair! And so meaningless! Poor me, poor me!).

Amazing work of art. Most films have very little on their mind, if anything. Finally a film about something that matters. Kauffman has given serious thinkers something to consider. I am amused at the reaction of so many mainstream reviewers who see their job as helping the masses avoid films they won't understand or appreciate. Yes the mainstream viewer will be disgusted by the shots of shit in the toilet (When was the last time you saw that?!) Yes they will be bored and confused (What? No robots?!) but for the true cinema fan this film is a gift. Read Roger Ebert's review (it's linked at IMDB and MRQE). It strikes new ground as a philosophical work in itself. My life was enriched by this film. I laughed 100 times and saw a dozen truths that will stay with me for a very long while. Bravo.

greatest film of it's type ever. the most Truth, with the least amount of pretention. Whah, it didn't have enough action Whah, it didn't have enough romance Whah, it got too many stars and tries to be too smart it's not for everyone, and yet is a gift for anyone who is willing and able to get it...

It felt like Kaufman was just making it up as he went along. A very tedious film.

I agree - but you miss two important things in saying it is unbearably depressing . It is about difficultly and it does ruthlessly attack some of the ways we force meaning into the chaotic material of life. There is , however, a heavy vien of self-satire which lightens the desperation, extreme desperation is shown in the film as the product of the over investment in the illusion of individual importance. I also think that the film strongly believes in its communication. shows some incredible imaginative intimacy with some apparently unlikeable charaters. Most importantly, the ending aches with hope as it renders a tenderness and compassion in the audience. This really is an incredible achievement against the almost overwhelming sense of the ridicoulous that has been building since the opening sequence.

Wow, everyone here completely missed the point of this movie. You are all taking it far too literally. I just saw this movie on DVD last weekend and thought it was unbearably depressing, brutally sad and one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. The movie isn’t about a theater director named Caden. The movie is about the utter futility and pointlessness of the human condition. The huge replica he builds of New York city on his sound stage is a metaphor for the artifice that is all of our lives and the desperate way in which we try to fill them with meaningful content. The fact that he dies without finishing his masterpiece is the heartbreaking, soul crushing truth of all of our existences. We will finish nothing and in the end some self-constructed version of our self whispers in our ear, telling us what to, how to react and eventually when to die. Brilliant movie.

I wish I could go to the Spotless Mind Clinic and have Synecdoche erased from my memory. It was the worst movie I have ever seen. Kaufman should never direct again. Maybe this green tird of a script would have been better realized by a great director. Yes, I have been a great fan of his in the past.

This film works for me and doesn’t slip into being pretentious because of it’s throwaway filming style – everything is underplayed. A huge amount of detail is present but nothing is rammed down our throats, and so it never tilts over into hyperbole. Several contributors here seem upset because the film has lofty ambitions or they feel Mr Kaufman is attempting to present himself as being clever. What would you have him do? Dumb it down? Artificially place some restraint on his invention? I identified, in my own small way, with Caden Cotard. The self-centred need to fulfil one’s true potential at the expense of all else – Caden comes to realise that he has his priorities wrong much too late. It actually resonated with the chunk of the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ used in the BBC’s recent ‘Occupation’, which goes: ‘Gilgamesh, what you seek you will never find. For when the Gods created Man they let death be his lot, eternal life they withheld. Let your every day be full of joy, love the child that holds your hand, let your wife delight in your embrace, for these alone are the concerns of humanity’.

Thank you Usman Khawaja for your below, excellent review of this film - not only was TO's five star assessment off, most importantly the review itself was utterly superficial and failed to mention the main themes and failures of the film. I normally agree with TO's assessments overall so am very curious who did this one. SYnecdoche is kinda interesting - very difficult/boring to watch but throws some ideas at you - but the ultimate failure to provide ironic relief AND judgement of the 'inexorant male' character and his selfishness, anger and destructions of himself and others sticks out as its greatest failure. Caden is an a**hole and I pity anyone who is unlucky enough to have to deal with anyone like this in their lives (for people like him do exist!).

Dull, pretentious and utterly miserable. I couldnt wait for it to end and almost walked out, the only thing that stopped me was the faint hope that it might somehow suddenly take a turn for the better (but it never did). I thought it was a self-indugent piece of cinema and I am annoyed at having wasted 2 hours and 10bucks on it.