Drama

Synecdoche, New York

Likely Story

Projective Testing Service

Sidney Kimmel Entertainment

Russia

United States of America

English

Deutsch

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Samantha Morton

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Michelle Williams

Catherine Keener

Emily Watson

Tom Noonan

Sadie Goldstein

Hope Davis

Dianne Wiest

Stanley Krajewski

Kristen Bush

Alice Drummond

Amy Wright

Deirdre O'Connell

Elizabeth Marvel

Charles Techman

Tom Greer

Josh Pais

Lynn Cohen

Jerry Adler

Daisy Tahan

Frank Girardeau

Peter Friedman

Daniel London

Robert Seay

Stephen Adly Guirgis

Joe Lisi

Michael Medeiros

Christopher Evan Welch

William Ryall

Rosemary Murphy

John Rothman

Paul Sparks

Tim Guinee

Robin Weigert

Michael Higgins

Barbara Haas

Greg McFadden

Alvin Epstein

Gerald Emerick

Chris McGinn

Dan Ziskie

Portia

Nicholas Wyman

Amy Spanger

Timothy Doyle

Cliff Carpenter

Raymond Angelic Sr.

Erica Fae

Mark Lotito

Laura Odeh

Deanna Storey

Frank Wood

Amanda R. Phillips

Kat Peters

Charlie Kaufman

Robert Frazen

Spike Jonze

Jon Brion

Ray Angelic

Sidney Kimmel

William Horberg

Anthony Bregman

Bruce Toll

Frederick Elmes

Jessica Levin

Chantal Nong Vo

Philip Stockton

H.H. Cooper

Eugene Gearty

Dror Gescheit

Drew Jiritano

Reilly Steele

Adam Stockhausen

Lydia Marks

Mark Friedberg

Melissa Toth

Jeanne McCarthy

Drew Kunin

Erica Kay

Kim Jennings

Mark Pollard

Bonnie Greenberg

Mark Goodermote

Deborah Jensen

Mark Hagerman

Mark Russell

Mary Cybulski

Brian Smyj

Lukasz Jogalla

Judy Chin

Jonathan Lumley

Amy Pickering

Mike Marino

Angela Mirabella

Chris Ann Pappas

Mary Gierczak

Beth Moran

Cara Borrelli

Jerry DeCarlo

Sandy Hamilton

Arlynn Abseck

Mandy Lyons

Naomi Donne

Marko Costanzo

Alec Styborski

Fred Rosenberg

Steve Bartek

Kam Chan

Ruth Hernandez

Brett Miller

John Bair

Jamie Baker

Scott Frankel

Renuka Ballal

Branka Mrkic

George A. Lara

Rori Bergman

Glenn Allen

Jim Schultz

Roopesh Gujar

Catherine Tate

Jesh Murthy

Nicole Abellera Hallman

Eric J. Robertson

Richard Friedlander

Parker Chehak

Joanne Bloom

Leslie Woo

Frank Kern

Paloma Añoveros

T. Patrick Johnson

Charlotte Fleck

Jacob Jaffke

This truly is a film about everything, and everyone. It is a film about conscious existence and subconscious being, a film about love, a film about death, and the art and emotion expanding in between the longing sonder and emptiness. Synecdoche, New York is sonder as meta-cinematic expression. Life for everyone in their individualistic existence is simply their own syncretic vision of fleeting hope hurling towards inevitable death, and that’s perfectly ok, it’s just how things are. We all live in our own fiction unbeknownst to other’s fictions, so what truly matters is the genuine emotion we individually find and connect with through it all. 

Emotion is the only reality humanity is capable of grasping, and we must accept and learn to appreciate and live with that fact before it’s too late and our life has passed us by. Much alike an aspect of the film, where we constantly experience time leaps multiple years into the future without preparation or warning. A reflection of the fleeting nature of existence and how we can experience the transience of time before it’s too late, and the post-humous regret we will feel as a result of our ignorance to emotion and the inevitability of being. This isn’t a hopeless or nihilistic film, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. 

"Sonder — noun. (neologism) the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own."
Trying to analytically determine whether events in the film 'really happened' or not, or taking anything in this film as a literal matter of reality, is completely and utterly fruitless, and I believe goes completely against what the movie stands for. The film is intentionally crafted to defy such an undeviating analysis. It all happened, within a film! It is very much about why we make anything, why our individuality is significant. What do we hope to accomplish by creating or feeling something? How can you make anything about life if you are at that very moment?

It's a feedback loop: everything is a synecdoche; part of a greater whole.

The reality of the film is fictional because the film is aware that itself is fiction. It suggests that in some sense, every work ever made, no matter how true to life, is inescapably fiction, and that fiction is in some ways even more true to life than reality itself. We all live in our own fictional worlds, and when we task others to create or give emotion to our world, it can create a mirrored chamber of tunnel vision, a feedback loop. Caden gets lost in the mirror chamber, and the entire being of the film itself is an extension of that mirror. A masterclass of existential meta-cinema. 

There are so many different subplots and aspects of this film that I could literally write a master’s thesis on it, but instead, I rather just chose to focus on the things most impactful to me in this little writeup. I could go on and on overanalyzing everything, but I think that would be counterintuitive towards the movie. This absolute masterpiece sparked lots of laughing, crying, and every emotion in between. It does what it is designed to do, force you into a metaphysical existential crisis. This is truly one of the most uniquely special films ever made, impactful in every single manner. One of the most principally powerful and important pieces of art EVER, I found myself sobbing even at parts that I didn’t even know what was going on. As the credits rolled I cried harder than I have in months, films like this are the reason I believe cinema to be the inherent soul of all artistic mediums, and the reason I find beauty in this chaotic existence. This film is going straight to my top 5 without a single fucking question or doubt in my mind. 

Rest in peace, PSH. Your work continues to greatly impact millions of people, even after death. You are dearly cherished and missed. 

And thank you Charlie Kaufman, for completely transcending the medium, and creating one of the single most important films in the history of cinema.

Best Movies

Synecdoche, New York

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Samantha Morton

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Michelle Williams

Catherine Keener

Emily Watson

Tom Noonan

Sadie Goldstein

Hope Davis

Dianne Wiest

Box office

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