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Charlie Kaufman's ambitious directorial debut occasionally strains to connect, but ultimately provides fascinating insight into a writer's mind.
All Critics (185) | Top Critics (49) | Fresh (126) | Rotten (59) | DVD (9)
This is a classic Kaufmanesque work: bold, bizarre and utterly baffling. May 17, 2009 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
This is a classic Kaufmanesque work: bold, bizarre and utterly baffling.
Cosmo Landesman
Synecdoche (pronounced Sih-neck-doh-kee, by the way) is beautifully acted throughout, scripted by Kaufman with the same valorous unorthodoxy as his Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and shot with real panache. May 15, 2009 | Rating: 3/5
Synecdoche (pronounced Sih-neck-doh-kee, by the way) is beautifully acted throughout, scripted by Kaufman with the same valorous unorthodoxy as his Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and shot with real panache.
Derek Malcolm
Somehow, because it resists unlocking, it feels more serious, troubling, significant. It's as funny as it's depressing. It's as brilliant as it is baffling. May 15, 2009 | Rating: 5/6 | Full Review…
Somehow, because it resists unlocking, it feels more serious, troubling, significant. It's as funny as it's depressing. It's as brilliant as it is baffling.
Dave Calhoun
A toweringly ambitious and bafflingly confusing film that gives a glimpse of the daily battles going on in the director's mind. May 15, 2009 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
A toweringly ambitious and bafflingly confusing film that gives a glimpse of the daily battles going on in the director's mind.
Wendy Ide
The film is either a masterpiece or a massively dysfunctional act of self-indulgence and self-laceration. It has brilliance, either way: surreal, utterly distinctive, witty, gloomy in the manner that his fans will recognise and adore. May 15, 2009 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…
The film is either a masterpiece or a massively dysfunctional act of self-indulgence and self-laceration. It has brilliance, either way: surreal, utterly distinctive, witty, gloomy in the manner that his fans will recognise and adore.
Peter Bradshaw
A difficult, maddening and elusive film that's also intriguing, profound and darkly funny. May 15, 2009 | Rating: 3/5
A difficult, maddening and elusive film that's also intriguing, profound and darkly funny.
Matt Bochenski
The film very carefully sets up several interesting ideas, but then drops them as too many conflicting ideas become impossible to juggle. Aug 6, 2018 | Full Review…
The film very carefully sets up several interesting ideas, but then drops them as too many conflicting ideas become impossible to juggle.
Sarah Manvel
As an example of failure, and delusion, it's fascinating but ultimately frustrating. Dec 29, 2017 | Full Review…
As an example of failure, and delusion, it's fascinating but ultimately frustrating.
Brian D. Johnson
Even amid the complexity of his vision, there are moments of searing simplicity and emotional speechlessness that even the most hardened loner among us cannot fail to take to heart. Aug 8, 2017 | Full Review…
Even amid the complexity of his vision, there are moments of searing simplicity and emotional speechlessness that even the most hardened loner among us cannot fail to take to heart.
Peg Aloi
The movie is ungainly, but to appreciate it one has to swallow the whole purple pill. As inconsistent as it is, it's still more album than mix tape. May 16, 2016 | Full Review…
The movie is ungainly, but to appreciate it one has to swallow the whole purple pill. As inconsistent as it is, it's still more album than mix tape.
Justin Stewart
Brilliantly imagined and perfectly performed, Synecdoche, New York is so heartbroken and strange that it can be compared only to other Charlie Kaufman films. Mar 6, 2015 | Full Review…
Brilliantly imagined and perfectly performed, Synecdoche, New York is so heartbroken and strange that it can be compared only to other Charlie Kaufman films.
Stuart Klawans
An important and intriguing film that must be seen to be believed. Mar 24, 2011 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
An important and intriguing film that must be seen to be believed.
Mike Edwards
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Super Reviewer
"Synecdoche, New York" is, by all accounts, the nightmare world of Charlie Kaufman's mind. Both writing and directing, Kaufman's inner psyche is so unhinged that the result is a film so insane, so overambitious, so all-reaching and meta that its impossible to not be amazed by it, but its easy to be frustrated by it's all-consuming , baffling, abstract, fragmented wholeness.
You can tell that this film was meticulously drawn out but the final work is hard to comprehend. The film is existential to the max and only lets true scholars understand its true meaning which may make some bitter after watching such a film.
Now watch as Charlie Kaufman disappears up his own arse! With style. Full review later.
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