October
26Opaque Praise
Charlie Kaufman, whose new movie is inexplicably titled “Synecdoche, New York,” is a filmmaker whose opaque films need rave reviews. The good news is that he gets them. But his worshipful reviews are even more opaque than his movies.“Unrepentantly solipsistic,” says Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times. “Extravagantly conceptual,” raves Manohla Dargis in the New York Times.
Movie marketers covet “Audience reviews”. But, are filmgoers going to rush to a movie which, as Dargis explains, opens with a four year old “Evacuating radioactive feces?” Dargis insists Synecdoche is “One of the best films of the year,” but confesses that her’s is “a pathetic response.”
OK, I’ll take her word for it.
Chocano admires the movie because it is “Achingly, achingly sad”. Yes she uses the double ache. She also warns the movie is “Hard to follow.”
Charlie Kaufman’s fans remind me of the old expression “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”
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Mr. Bart,
In Hollywood if we don't understand it we assume it is smart. Outside Hollywood the best ideas are simple. We all know how difficult it is to tell a simple story.
Thank you.
Posted by: Ken Sauter | 10/27/2008 3:53:12 PM
Mr. Bart,
I saw "Synecdoche, New York" and while I did find it hard to follow and a bit boring at times, I do believe its a film I would like to see again because it gives the viewer a great deal to think about it. I think you're making an interesting point about how some positive reviews can make a viewer not want to see a movie, but I believe you take Ms. Dargis's words completely out of context. She uses the term "pathetic response" because she feels using such a simple term as "best of the year" doesn't do the movie justice, and given its subject matter, a playwright trying to put on an amazing play, and Kaufman also critiquing the hero's efforts seem to not do the movie justice in discussing it in such terms. Simply put, I think yours was an interesting argument until you took Ms. Dargis's words out of context. You should see "Synecdoche, New York." You may like it. Also, the title is not inexplicable - just look up the word "synecdoche."
Posted by: Ryan Sartor | 10/27/2008 11:57:33 AM