Love It or Hate It, No In-Between (Except Maybe Me)

I saw "Synecdoche New York" last night, the new Charlie Kaufman movie. I have to confess, that despite his lofty cinematic stature, I don't really know much about him.

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So I just wikied him. He has the same birthday as me(!), and had a hand in "Being John Malkovich," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Adaptation," and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Much of his work, including plays he's written, are extremely explicitly self-referential, so if that kind of thing bothers you, then you're going to hate his work. I happen to enjoy that kind of thing, because I think it's interesting trying to piece together what it is an artist is trying to work out through recurring themes in his work. Judging from this latest movie, maybe Kaufman's a little too heavy-handed about it. Whatever.

Anyway, people are VERY divided about this movie. I thought it kept going a bit too long, but overall, I enjoyed it. I thought it was clever, particularly the structure. Yes, there WAS a structure. Some people, however, HATED it. And that's putting it lightly. My roommate Joe hated it, saying that because Kaufman has now become established, he can make something completely confusing, incoherent, and self-indulgent, and everyone will love it and call it genius because, hey, Kaufman made it. My other roommate Liz liked it, saying that one sees Charlie Kaufman movies with the expectation that they're going to be self-indulgent, as in, duh.
I liked it specifically because of the structure. I feel like the meaning was in the structure. And, I'm a sucker for the post-modern.
In "Synecdoche," playwright Caden Cotard gets a MacArthur Grant, and writes a never-ending play about his life, and all the people in it. But it's only slightly delayed from real-time, everything that happens in real life happens in the play, and all real characters including himself have faux characters of themselves. And, as all the real characters have twin faux characters, then those faux character must have faux characters of themselves. So it expands exponentially, like the universe, which I loved. Those types of things make my head hurt, but in an enjoyable way. Sometimes though, the faux characters would end up interacting with the real characters, instead of the their faux counterparts, just to throw a wrench in the works.
I think the idea of being able to step outside yourself and watch yourself would be awesome, very enlightening. If I could watch the "Laura" tv show and see from an outside perspective how I behave, I think or at least hope, that I would learn something about myself. In this film, though, none of the characters end up growing or evolving despite having this ability. That's a little sad, and definitely nihilistic, but I think that's his point.
Final Tally
Liked it: 3
Hated it: 3
End Result: Tie