‎Synecdoche, New York (2008) directed by Charlie Kaufman • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Synecdoche, New York

2008 Directed by Charlie Kaufman

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Philip Seymour Hoffman Samantha Morton Jennifer Jason Leigh Michelle Williams Catherine Keener Emily Watson Tom Noonan Sadie Goldstein Hope Davis Dianne Wiest Kristen Bush Alice Drummond Amy Wright Deirdre O'Connell Elizabeth Marvel Charles Techman Tom Greer Josh Pais Lynn Cohen Daisy Tahan

124 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Adam Cook ★★★★★ 33

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

**NOTE: This is less a review and more a rough analysis of the film so please do not read if you have yet to see the film.**

I think this will be Kaufman's Eyes Wide Shut in that it won't get the recognition it truly deserves for at least ten years. Synecdoche, New York is pure cinema. No other medium could possibly attempt to tell this story. It would be largely incomprehensible as a novel and too bogged down in detail to have any real emotional resonance. Whilst no theatre could do justice to the scale the story demands or unfold in such a unique time frame.

I appreciate that the film won’t be for everyone but I just fell…
Review by Arielrocks5 ★★★★★ 78

Charlie Kaufman is a man who understands the idea of the human existence in a way that won't be fully be able to accepted among the rest of the world because we all believe that the idea of life is that we just simply have to make the most of it for our own needs and sometimes the needs of others. When in actuality life is a giant stage for us to preform the pain, happiness, laughter, sadness, and pure angry towards our own existence.

And the audience is in the distant future, waiting for our stories to be finished only to then fade into the rest of the unknown entity that is death who is the director and stage…
Review by DirkH ★★★★★ 31

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This is Charlie Kaufman's crowning achievement. It is not only his best film to date, it is one of the best films I have ever seen.

I rarely come across films anymore that manage to ensnare me in a narrative so disjointed, yet so enthralling I cannot help but be absorbed by it wholly. This film stretches the medium to its limits in a non-obfuscating way that is refreshing, unique and despite the deep layers it possesses, accessible in so far that there is an appealing and universal truth at the surface of it all.

Creation is art is life.

Kaufman's story has to be a film. It was created purposefully for it and he understands the medium so well.…
Review by Lucy ★★★★★ 4

someone, eventually: why do u like this movie so much
me: i have depression
Review by Evan ★★★★★ 5

Synecdoche, New York is a film that must be experienced by everyone. If you have yet to see this movie, I suggest you stop what you're doing and watch it now. Philip Seymour Hoffman truly was one of, if not the best actor of this generation. You're presence will forever be missed, RIP.
Review by YI JIAN ★★★★★ 23

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

Weeks lost in one cut, years lost between scenes, lives lost in a blink of an eye. Time is slipping through our fingers. You may mind your own problems, sort your own miseries as if they are the only thing in this world worthy of your attention. You may play pretend; pretend you are a fairy, or an actor, or an actor playing an actor playing an actor. Set a daily routine for yourself as a distraction from the fact that we are all hurtling towards death. Still, before you know it, reality will catch up with you. You will suddenly wake up on what soon to be your own deathbed and realize…

Recent reviews

Review by liam lopinto ★★½

I really like song in the credits :)
Review by Alex ★★★★★

I have yet to watch any videos making sense of this. There is a lot - and I mean A LOT - that I don't understand about this film. I've had a few theories scattered around, but none of them really merge with everything that happens in the film, only some sections. But that's what makes this film brilliant. It's not that it's hard to follow, its that its subtext and themes are so brilliantly out of reach. It doesn't give up good storytelling, it has it so well interwoven. It's a character study, and what an impossibly real character this was. And yet, in true Kaufman style, everything is presented in such a meta way that I'm not even…
Review by Dov Doviak ★★★★★

It's baffling how something so consistently hilarious can be so profoundly melancholic... If a greater juxtaposition exists on film, I've yet to see it...
Review by Will Whitehead ★★★

I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. If it’s about the futility of introspection, I like it. If it’s not I don’t get what it’s about. Whatever.
Review by Lucca Farias ★★★★★

This film is a complete masterpiece. I got much more impressed in this rewatch.
Review by fin_stein ★★★★½

I don't think Synecdoche, New York is trying to push one message, at least not immediately. It hooked me with its hypnotic mood, created by the dreamlike visuals and score. The best films are ones in which the components are just as fascinating as the surface presentation, and Kaufman's ambiguous structure is tempting me to dig deeper. It invisibly transitions from realism into abstraction, making the world seem consistent despite always changing. The protagonist's direction of an autobiographic play opened the door to my own contemplation, and I've never seen some of these themes tackled in a film before. I understand this is an ambiguous description, but my viewing was very ambiguous, so I don't mind. I'm sure my opinion will only improve.
Review by ChickenUh ★★★★★

This is hard to put into words, it's mostly hard for me to put things into words but this especially. I've never written a review.
I was already thinking of what to write for this while watching the movie, I would rate it 5 stars because "I never thought a movie could make me feel like shit so much," but towards the last 20 minutes of the movie I started feeling a lot more things than that. I'm reflecting on myself.
This won't be a review, just what I'm thinking about after watching this. My life hasn't been long, I'm 17, I feel a strong urge to delete all of this so I'll keep it short to finish before I…
Review by Ezra Peace ★★★★★

I have to say, it's still got it after all these years. It crushed me.. again. The existential dream-like melancholy of life, Kaufman fucking nails it. More than even Adaptation. This movie is so good. I first watched it at the beginning of my cinephillic journey, and I was worried it might suffer from childhood grandiosity. But it is every bit the affective film that I remember.
Review by Susanne 🎭 ★★★★½

how Charlie Kaufman was able to catch this big theme of life is beyond amazing. a real and haunting film. i'm silently sitting on my bench, counting the minutes and writing this review. so weird. you know that feeling that your life feels really small? so that's happening with me after watching this masterpiece. I got sad when I connected it to real life, realising that Philip Seymour Hoffman isn't here anymore. so weird and unthinkable. in this character he seems so well aware of this life. film is really a medium that can seize the time. frame it into a two hour ride. it's amazing that Kaufman is able to bring this aspect to life in his movies. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind gave me the same melancholy feeling. i''m seeing Anomalisa and Being John Malkovich next for sure.