Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York may possibly be the most audacious directorial debut since Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941). It’s certainly on the very short list of great debut films. It’s a richly complex work that got a bad break locally by coming at the height of the Christmas and awards season in 2008. My review—which on a single viewing was inadequate—appeared on Dec. 17. By Dec. 19, the movie was gone, and would have been gone regardless, since there simply was no room for it on local screens. With this in mind, the Asheville Film Society is screening the film to offer moviegoers who missed it on its brief original run a shot at seeing it in theatrical form, which it fully deserves.

Even having seen the film several times now, I still feel little more equipped than I was in 2008 to make claims to anything even remotely like a complete “mastery” of it. To this end, I direct readers to my original review at www.mountainx.com/movies/review/synecdoche_new_york.

I do want to note, however, that I no longer find the film puzzling or maddening. It is still somewhat Lynchian, but in a more coherent manner. In other words, the strangeness makes sense within the narrative of the film in ways that don’t require some huge leap in logic on the part of the viewer. Seeing the film more than once makes a good many of its cross-references clear in ways that a single viewing simply isn’t going to do. That’s not to say that I think the film will ever give up all its secrets, but that’s also the reason it’s a great film—not the “flawed brilliant oddity” I originally thought—and will remain a fascinating work.