cult me in 03

Synecdoche New York [2008 ~ USA]

dir. Charlie Kaufman

''Synecdoche, New York is a ridiculous, absurd, and funny film. It is a disturbing, scary and depressing film. If you go into it with an open mind, it can be all of these things, sometimes at the same time.

Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour-Hoffman), is a theatre director living in Schenactady, NY. He's directing a regional production of Death of a Salesman with younger actors playing all of the roles. He is vaguely unhappy. His wife, Adele (Catherine Keener) is an artist. She is preparing for a show in Berlin. She ends up taking their 4-yr. old daughter and leaving Caden. He is depressed. He gets a MacArthur fellowship and uses it to rent a warehouse and start up an experimental theatre production involving actors that's going to represent real life by being "brutal and honest." He is also sick and going through a constant stream of medical examination that is more Kafka-esquire than sex with Woody Allen. He might be dying.

Does that sound boring? Well, it's not. Bizarre things happen, fascinating ideas are explored, wonderful dialogue is spoken, and everything unfolds in a deliberate, steady pace. The less you know about the actual story, the better''