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A Filmmaker's Review: "Synecdoche, New York" (2008)

4/5 - A fantastic, immersive experience of a film...

By Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago 4 min read
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This film is an incredible and immersive experience when it comes to filmmaking. Like "Inception" (2010) after it and "Memento" (2000) before it, "Synecdoche, New York" (2008) feels like it is directed by Christopher Nolan, but it isn't. It is an incredible, sensitive movie with a high design quality - it makes the most of every single main actor in the cast. It is confusing as hell if you only watch the film once as a one off and I believe that to truly understand it, you have to watch it a couple of times over the course of a few years. So, let's explore how I did that...

When I was about 17 years' old, the film was aired on TV but I don't quite remember whether it was day or night and I don't really remember the channel it was on. I just knew it was on television because that's how I came about watching it. When I did watch the film, whilst studying may I add, I wasn't really paying the film the service of my undivided attention and so, with bits skipped out - I caught glimpses and scenes of the film. I became thoroughly confused because every time I looked up, he had a new family, a new lifestyle, there was some other thing wrong with him, there was more people around. I couldn't keep up. I knew it was one of those films that required my undivided attention if I were to understand anything at all.

After my examinations, when I was 18, I found the film again and decided to watch it. This time, I put my attention on the film purely because I could. I remember sitting there in a state of disbelief and thinking 'holy shit who came up with this?' It was twisted and weird - but I felt like there were some things in there I didn't understand due to my lack of age. I then watched it again last night, whilst approaching 24 - and I can honestly say that I think I really got it. I believe that the purpose of the film is to make you watch it again and again over the years in hope that you'll understand it in different ways due to your experience of age and that is one of the most incredible things in cinema. You can do this and nobody will question your motives, people will just assume that in ten years' time, they'll get the same movie with a different meaning or a different experience and that is absolutely beautiful. Other films this works with are "Boyhood" (2014), The Godfather Part II (1974) and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (2008).

So, when we look at this film, there are some main things I want to cover for the advantages of making this a modern classic. The first is the acting. Philip Seymour Hoffman was an incredible actor. He starred in one of my favourite films ever, Capote (2005). Check out my review of that film here: https://vocal.media/geeks/a-filmmaker-s-review-capote-2005 He was also brilliant in this film as he portrays a man absolutely sick of his life but willing to do something to hold his legacy after death. Ironically, that is what has happened to Seymour Hoffman now because of his untimely death. The whole life mirrors art thing - yes, I believe that it was his greatest performance of all time.

The next thing I enjoyed about this film was the storytelling aspect. There were entire worlds within stories and this was reflected in the warehouse he rents halfway through the film and builds an entire life inside it. These people live out their existences within that space and instead of the real world, what if that was the real world? And that's the question that runs through the entire film. When I watched the film for the first time, I didn't really pick up one of the most important lines in the film: "When are we going to get an audience in here? It's been 17 years..." If you pay attention to that line, you can most likely work out the timescale of the film.

The next great thing about this film is the way in which it explores death. Death isn't just a concept that befalls everyone but death is also a gateway into yet another performance. In this film, death is the great performance and you see that when the guy portraying the director commits suicide in an act of performance against his character (who tried to do the exact same thing but failed earlier on in the film). It's a near perfect exploration of the human condition and a joy to watch as a refreshing take on the subject.

With the only downside being the confusion, I think that the whole point of this film is to watch it over some years because it will definitely change the meaning for you and so - "Synecdoche New York" (2008) is an excellent and exhilarating exploration of humans, lives, deaths and consequence. Everything fits together perfectly and, as the audience, you too are part of the film. You are the on-looker to madness and you are the one that in fifty years will revisit the film and say "Man, I didn't see that there..."

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About the Creator

Annie Kapur

190K+ Reads on Vocal.

English Lecturer

🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)

🎓Film & Writing (M.A)

🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd)

📍Birmingham, UK

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