‎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

124 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Adam Cook ★★★★★ 30

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 ★★★★★ 77

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 ★★★★★ 30

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 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 Lucy ★★★★★ 4

someone, eventually: why do u like this movie so much
me: i have depression
Review by YI JIAN ★★★★★ 21

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 imaxor ★★★★★

i get it now
Review by Jabir ★★★★

A man gets unlimited funds to create a show in which he decides to make about himself but since he's the director of a show he needs to hire someone to play him so he casts people to be him, who cast people to be them, who casts people to be them, who casts...... and so on. His show gets extremely convoluted that time becomes a metaphorical blended milkshake and what happens in the past and the future don't necessarily follow a a chronological order. My favorite part was the man who stalked him for 20 years got the part to play as him because he knew almost everything about him. He was literally born to for the part. This…
Review by Samu ★★★★★

100/100.

Probably the most ambitious piece of fiction I've come across. My boyfriend's favourite film, and now one of mine too. It's so massive in scale yet every moment is so detailed. It demands a re-watch to catch everything I missed the first time around.

It's hard to capture the scope and grandeur of this film. It's about life and death and everything in between, it's confusing and beautiful and it consumes you. Charlie Kaufman is a filmmaker like no other, transporting us inside his world - his mind. What a trip it was. I'll never forget it.

I'm overflowing with inspiration after watching this. That's how I know I truly loved it.
Review by McSnuggles ★★★★

I hesitate to criticize such an ambitious and sprawling film, but I have to confess I could not make it through this one. Maybe that's because I can't stand movies about artistic self-criticism; they've always seemed too self-indulgent for me. Let's just get this out on the table: I don't care for 8½ either. Synecdoche makes full use of the film medium in a similar way, and I laud it for that. But at the end of the day, I do want to care about the characters onscreen, and this movie is too goddamn depressing for that. Mulholland Dr, by contrast, takes a similar approach to surrealism and dream logic, but manages to be eminently watchable because it's about something other than a creatively frustrated director. It leaves you feeling bewildered and icky inside, perhaps, but not existentially depressed. But hey, sadbois, to each your own.
Review by whatthe ★★★★★

This is the greatest movie ever made, a pinnacle of artistic achievement. I am so fortunate that I am able to experience it again and again. I need to write a longer review on this movie.
Review by Siddhartha ★★★★★

A masterpiece!
Review by mady brek ★★★★★

I miss you Philip 💔

"I've watched you forever, Caden, but you've never really looked at anyone other than yourself. So watch me. Watch my heart break. Watch me jump. Watch me learn that after death there's nothing. There's no more watching. There's no more following. No love. Say goodbye to Hazel for me. And say it to yourself, too. None of us has much time."
Review by Tom Doona ★★★★★

Shatters the soul, shatters logic, shatters planet earth. One of a kind, in the most literal of ways. So many layers, each word a capsule and each shot a revelation. Greatest I've seen, and my new-found solace. I don't feel compelled to write anymore about this, because it does all the talking. All of it.

"Amen."
Review by Lila

Man I just got lost in time watching this like I genuinely feel I was not myself and I was somewhere else and everything this really fucked me up and I can't even understand the half of it