Synecdouche, New York (2008)

I went to see Synecdouche a few weeks ago and was quite impressed. I wouldn't say that I liked it better than Adaptation, the humor is definately more deadpan and witty. I was the kind of humor where you find yourself the only one laughing sometimes, where I think the obsessive and frantic nature of Cage makes Adaptation a little more accessible in regards to humor. It's a fairly straight-forward plot at first and it slowly gets more fragmented. I liked this as opposed to something like Lynch's "Inland Empire," which just immediately smashes into the weird wall and never gets any more translucent. The oddness of Synecdouche builds and is fairly easy, yet somewhat challenging to follow until around the last 10-15 minutes of the film. Even the last segment of the film is nice beacuse it allows you to leave the theatre trying to wrap your mind around what you just saw and is certainly a film that will be on my mind for days. I think a friend said it best when we got back to the car and he stated, "You know I really want to see that again," which is probably the best immediate comment you can make about a movie. It's full of layers, "literally," but it's simply brilliant. It reminds me a bit of "8 1/2," since it too is a movie about directing. By the end, you may even wonder if somehow you are in one of the many "Las Meninas-esque"/Matryoshka doll warehouses portrayed throughout the film. I am dumbfounded by the script and how Kaufman could accurately write and direct such a piece; I would have loved to have been on that set and imagine it mimics the set of the play portrayed in the actual film. Hoffman is as brilliant as ever and the cast of female characters do a phenominal job of "supporting" him.

3.5 out of 4