synecdoche, new york

Just finished watching Synecdoche, New York (2008), the directorial debut film of Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Adaptation (2002), Being John Malcovich (1999), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). And I really applaud him for giving me a really good headache!

I think Synecdoche, New York is the most technical film I've ever seen in terms of complexity and usage of motifs. After watching it, I didn't know where to place it at first. I guess that's his thing. He'd play with your mind with these ideas so out of the box, sometimes dangerously tipping into the realm of weird but are always delivered fresh and thought-provoking.

Synecdoche, in terms of motifs, is Adaptation's brother in a way. Syncedoche uses a motif such as 'play within a play' (can't shake off Christopher Nolan's 'dream within a dream thing'), while Adaptation uses 'movie within a movie'. Forgive me if I'm being technically inaccurate. Well, in Adaptation, the whole movie is the final output of the adapted screenplay of a book by the protagonist, a writer in the movie played by Nicolas Cage. Huh? There, I tried explaining. Haha! It's just crazy how he was able to come up with such ingenious ideas. Well, I guess that's the writers' way of putting their signatures on what they do, especially in an industry with so many artistic writers and surrounded by never-ending cliches.

Overall, Synecdoche, New York is a little pain in the head, but it's really nice and I think I'm gonna watch it again and discover new things in it...