I have talked about a lot of movies that I believe to be worth viewing. That is something I will continue to do as I believe there are movies that never saw light at the box office but remain an amazing movie experience. However, before I go further with that series, I would like to stop here and talk about the pinnacle of what I believe to be movies worth watching.
If you were to take my suggestion with one movie, it would definitely be this one.
Synecdoche, New York
When it comes to reviewing and rating movies, this one is my definition of a 10/10 movie. It's a movie that is just alive. You could watch it ten times and still get something out of it each time you watch it. It includes Philip Seymour Hoffman's best acting and it is the best directorial debut ever with Charlie Kaufman.
Film Synopsis
Caden Cotard is a theatre director whose wife and son left him. He deals with a therapist that doesn't really care about his problems as much as she cares about plugging her book. All the while he deals with a strange disease slowly shutting his body down. He aims to make a brutally honest play about death.
He gathers his actors and instructs them to live their lives within certain constructs that resemble New York City itself.
What's Special About The Movie?
An easy answer would be: What isn't? The acting is great, the directing is as well. The cinematography compliments that, even the soundtrack of the movie was written by Charlie Kaufman. Every element of the movie is done perfectly and mixes well with the other.
The movie is a brutal tale of reality and how time slips from between our fingers. Each movement by the actors, especially Hoffman's, is crafted by the details to add something to the story.
The Movie Is Very Complex
This doesn't mean that you won't get anything from it if you don't fully understand it. The movie can also be told through just feelings. Every action happening in the movie isn't some random action aimed to fill in the time while depending on the main story to carry the weight.
There are stories within stories in the movie that are brilliantly created through movements, talking patterns, the words in the dialogue, the eye looks, every detail is part of the bigger story. Everything in the movie has a purpose.
Like A Play
The movie will have something different to it whenever you watch it, different occasions will give you a different experience. You can watch the movie now and five years from now and have totally different experiences. Even between now and tomorrow morning as there might be too many details for you to notice the first time.
That's my experience of live theatre. The fun of noticing something different between one and another. That's art in its purest yet most complex form.
In Conclusion
I hope you watch this movie soon. It's a masterpiece in all of its aspects, everything in it was measured, explored, and shown down to the smallest detail. If you're a cinephile like I am, this is the movie for you to watch so you could be able to sum up everything you love about movies with it.
Synecdoche, New York is a 10/10 movie in my book, one of the very movies that I would give that rating. I honestly believe this is a movie you will be missing out dearly if you don't watch it.
Individually I think each person would leave each viewing of the movie with different feelings than each other, and even themselves.