Review Tales

Synecdoche, New York is my favorite film of all time. It is the film that I resonate with the most, and every aspect of it is complex and perfectly thought out. It is not a pleasant film, but it’s one that is important because of the many things it is trying to communicate. This film is dense and complex to the point where I don’t think I can write an in-depth review in the same way I did with the other Kaufman films because it is simply too complex to put into a review. To analyze this film is a hard but, at the same time, rewarding task. It is through analyzing this film that I have not only learned about the film itself but about myself also.

A Personal Reflection

Back in 2nd grade, I had a weird thought. It was this thought of my mom possibly dying. This thought had never come into my mind due to me being so young, but it did. Death is something that looms over all of us. It is always present, and it is always coming closer and closer. We cannot stop it. 

We can try our best to delay it by being healthy, but we cannot stop it. These past few years, I have had many nightmares and thoughts of either myself or someone I love dying. What I would say at their funeral, what they would say at mine. Who would show up, and who wouldn’t? This mostly happens when I am sick. I always think, if I die…will they care?

Loneliness and Regret

I have lost many friends and close people this year. A whole group of people left me after a dispute, my first ever real girlfriend left me, and now one of my best friends doesn’t want to talk to me. I blame myself. I always think, what could I have done to stop it? or what if I hadn’t done that thing that accidentally hurt them? What if I was a better friend or boyfriend? What if I wasn’t such a coward or a crybaby? What if I didn’t annoy people with my suffering? I think about this all the time, and it hurts badly.

Caden and I are almost the same. Physically, no, but mentally and emotionally, yes. Caden wants to be heard and wants people to love him, but he is too caught up in his own suffering to help others or even acknowledge the people who do want to help. He does nothing but think about his loneliness and his impending death. He wastes his life chasing the meaning of life when it doesn’t really exist. 

He chases after comfort but does nothing but hurt himself. I do this. I want to be heard, but I am mostly too selfish and caught up in my own feelings to really listen to others. It is a human thing. We all do it. We want people to hear us, to love us, to understand how we feel, but we do not care about how others feel. We ignore the others who are suffering and even the ones who want to hear our suffering because maybe, to us, they are not the ones we want to listen to us.

Sammy was willing to listen and care for Caden, but Caden wanted Hazel. Sammy kills himself because he feels that Caden never cared about him the way he cares about Caden, making his life meaningless in the end. Sammy followed Caden to get a better understanding of him, but Caden couldn’t have cared less about Sammy. Instead, Caden chases after the women in his life who don’t care about him. They usually shut him out and get annoyed with him. Sammy wants to help Caden, while the rest just want to use him.

The Rose-Tinted Windows of Relationships

Looking at people’s lives is like looking through rose-tinted windows. Have you ever met a person and wondered things about who they were? What happens when they go home? What have they been through? How do they go through their day-to-day life? You can get hints from them but never the full picture. You usually only get to see the things they want you to. What they like, what they are good at, and so on.

Caden sees everyone through rose-tinted windows, and they see him through them too. They see him as a handsome and famous theater director, and he sees them as their best attributes, like their kindness or attractiveness. As time goes on, though, every relationship he is in ends poorly. 

Adele abandons him, Claire leaves him, and Hazel dies by the time they are finally able to be happy together. Adele and Caden’s marriage fell apart because they only saw each other for the great artists they were, not the people. After a while, the façade is broken, and their true and pathetic colors start to shine.

Caden and Claire fall apart because Caden tried to make her into the new Adele, only for that façade to also break and for them to leave each other. Hazel and Caden were a tad different in that they were more honest with each other, but they kept chasing after people who were not honest or did not mix well with them until it was too late.

When we meet people, we look at them for their best parts or who we want them to be, not who they fully are. The fact that the film takes place in New York contributes to this because New York is a highly populated area filled with apartment windows. You literally see glimpses of people’s lives through these windows, but not the full picture of who they are or what they go through.

We all want to be heard, loved or make a big impact in some way before we die, but we are too scared to show our true selves in order to do so, and we want people who do not care about us in the end to hear us.

The Synecdoche of Life

Art can and cannot imitate life at the same time. Literally, it cannot, but metaphorically, it can. Synecdoche, New York does and doesn’t imitate life at the same time. It does in a metaphorical sense, but not a literal one.

Life is impossible to imitate literally because every person or even just creature has their own story. Everyone was born, everyone went through some type of hell, and everyone will die. And while that can be shown in art in a metaphorical sense, it cannot be shown literally because it is impossible to have every person in the world in the art.

But it is possible to show it by giving an example or even a synecdoche of life. A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa. In other words, you can have one person or thing represent more things at once as a whole. For example, in the film, Caden is a synecdoche. He is a representation of human life as a whole. Caden was born, he goes through many struggles of trying to find meaning, and then he dies without ever really finding it.

The Meaning of Life According to Kaufman

Many, if not all, humans do this. We desperately try to find answers to philosophical questions, only to die before we ever find the answer. The belief that there is some true meaning in life is something that is in us all. We all try to hold onto the idea that there is a God or that there is something after we die, but the truth is we will never know.

So the question is, what is the meaning of life according to Kaufman himself?

I believe what Kaufman is trying to communicate is that the meaning of life is what you make of it. Whether it be following a religion, finding love, chasing your dreams, whatever it is, that is your meaning of life.

I think he is also trying to say that we should stop trying to chase the meaning of life as a whole and instead enjoy it while we still have it. Help others, learn a new skill, do something big, find love, and make your life worth living. Don’t chase after things that will not fulfill you and give you the closure or pleasure you think they will. Instead, do what makes you happy and make that your reason to live.

We only have little time on this earth, and time is against us. We must act and do something instead of just sit and be miserable. Regardless of who you are or what you believe in, you can do something with your life and give it its own meaning, instead of chasing some objective meaning that will just cause you to waste your life in the end.

A Masterpiece for the Ages

Synecdoche, New York is my favorite film of all time because it perfectly represents not only my life but everyone else’s also. It is the most important film ever made because of its honesty and brutality. It is beautiful in its own depressing and nihilistic way, using that nihilism to possibly communicate something brighter without ever really changing its tone or its nihilism.

It is still a very depressing film, but one that is able to communicate so many beautiful and honest things with it. Kaufman is my favorite filmmaker because of how honest he is. He never sugarcoats; he never lies. Instead, he shows things exactly how it is.

Kaufman once said that he wanted his films to grow as people grow, that he wants people’s interpretations of his films to change as they change as people, and I think that with Synecdoche, New York, he succeeded the most out of all his films.

This is a perfect film and will always be one. I cannot believe that a human being was able to make something this beautiful and dense, but here we are.