Synecdoche, New York

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (2008) - June 3, 2010
An strange film about a theatre director who begins to stage an increasingly elaborate play, a task that winds up taking up a good portion of his life.  There's something really odd and almost inscrutible about the dream-like world that writer and first-time director Charlie Kaufman creates, and it doesn't always exactly work.  But the film is definitely compelling in its own quirky way, and I think Kaufman is to be commended for trying something different (which does seem to be his M.O., though this is weird on a far more epic scale than his previous work).  Plus, there's the performances, which are uniformly great -- particularly Philip Seymour Hoffman, who gives what is probably one of his best performances in the central role.  ***