10 Brilliant Films That Were Intentionally Boring
9. Synecdoche, New York (2008)
After leaving a healthy legacy of astonishing screenplays in the past decade with Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Charlie Kaufman finally pulled up the director’s chair in 2008 for Synecdoche, New York. The result? His densest piece of art to date.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the central role of Caden Cotard, a critically lauded playwright who’s undertaking an ambitious new theatre project which involves creating a replica of New York City inside a warehouse. The film charts a string of Caden’s divorces, a tragic estrangement developing between him and his daughter as well as the existential weight his latest project imposes upon his psyche as his grip on reality begins to spiral out of control.
Synecdoche, New York is a classic Kaufmanesque work: bold, bizarre and utterly baffling. At times the film can feel heady and inaccessible, but at the same time gloriously indispensable. It will mesmerize some and mystify others, while many will indeed be bored silly.