Writer and sometimes-director Charlie Kaufman is primarily known for his brilliant metafictional comedies Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and the painfully beautiful Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Synecdoche, New York is the most recent film from the not-so-prolific writer, unless you count a "script revisor" credit for Kung Fu Panda 2... Starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as Caden Cotard, a struggling playwright and theatre director, Synecdoche, New York welcomes interpretation just as often as Kaufman's other efforts (if not more). Caden creates a life-size replica of New York City in a massive warehouse, ostensibly as part of a new play, and casts actors to play everyone in his life including himself. Of course, for a writer like Kaufman, that premise alone is not nearly confusing enough. Throughout the film, increasingly noticeable - and increasingly weird - angelic, motorised sounds hum in and out over the visuals of the film, causing home viewers everywhere to check their headphones and reset the sound output on their computers. The visuals themselves are increasingly strange, too, including a woman calmly touring a house that just so happens to be on fire. As you do. Which films do you find yourself analysing and overanalysing? Suggest them in the comments below!
