Synecdoche, New York (film)

Synecdoche, New York is Adam's second-favorite film of all time. He is currently creating an analysis series about the film, so far containing five parts.

The Film
Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American postmodern[3] drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is Kaufman's directorial debut.

The plot follows an ailing theater director (Hoffman) as he works on an increasingly elaborate stage production whose extreme commitment to realism begins to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. The film's title is a play on Schenectady, New York, where much of the film is set, and the concept of synecdoche, wherein a part of something represents the whole, or vice versa.

The film premiered in competition at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2008. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the United States distribution rights, paying no money but agreeing to give the film's backers a portion of the revenues.[4][5] It had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on October 24, 2008, and was a commercial failure on its initial release.[2]

The story and themes of Synecdoche, New York polarized critics: some called it pretentious or "self-indulgent"; multiple others, including Roger Ebert, declared it a masterpiece and later listed it among the best films of the 2000s, with Ebert ranking it #1.[6] It was also nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.