Synecdoche, New York

A wild-eyed theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman) attempts to build a life-sized replica of New York City in preparation for an ambitious play in the feature directorial debut of notoriously quirky screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). ...more

Nothing in Synecdoche, New York can be taken at face value. Every plot, character, and device has several layers of intended meaning. Even the title of the film is a play on words, referring to the literary term wherein a part is used to represent a whole, though it looks and sounds similar to Schenectady, a town in New York State. The film is a beyond-quirky slice of life story that follows a bored, depressed, and fractured theater director named Caden Cotard, played with bleak emotiveness by ...more

Before graduating to the ranks of director with Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman established himself as arguably the most talented screenwriter of his generation -- a fact that earned him the right to make his directorial debut as purposefully alienating as possible. The story concerns theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who, after winning the MacArthur genius grant, decides to stage an epic theatrical production about his life. His stated goal is to create something ...more