Film/TV Nov 6, 2008 at 4:00 am

Charlie Kaufman Has Problems

Comments

1
Lindy West you're an idiot. Did you cut and paste that review off of a 13 yr old girl's Myspace blog?
2
@ideas:

Lindy West IS a 13 year old girl.
3
I'm not sure if I liked it, loved it, disliked it, or hated it. I guess the one thing that's on my mind right now is this: Kaufman knows how to write a great movie. He knows how to make a great movie. This is a great movie. It's great because regardless of whether or not I end up liking or disliking it, it will be on my mind for a very long time. It's burned in my head. It's movies like Synecdoche that make you wonder why you even bother watching movies like Eagle Eye or whatever popcorn/Blockbuster flick is out. All you're doing is wasting your time. After a week you won't even remember you watched it until someone asks if you've seen anything recently. It's movies like Synecdoche that make you start a conversation about a movie, one that will last longer than "man that movie was a piece of shit" or "you know, I just really wanted to lose two hours of my life this weekend."

Also, read: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotard_delusion]
4
"It's huge and crazy and would be magnificent if you could sit through it enough times to make sense of the whole thing. But who wants to do that?"

Kinda like this column!
5
What is with all the Lindy West hating lately? It's not even clever hatred. It's really just the same comment over and over again, and it sounds like the same person over and over again. I ought to make a record of my findings.
6
Well, weel, well, now, Lindy dear, you and rope of silicon's brad briefs certainly are of like, um, minds on this one.

Now let's read what an Actual Critic has to say re Synecdoche (and the better to understand why it sailed over Liny's noggin).

http://moviesintofilm.com/w_synecdoche.htm
7
Went to see this movie twice today, and, frankly, I don't see how any honest critic could possibly write a review after one viewing. There's A LOT in there, and certainly virtually endless fodder for discussion. I would encourage people to keep an open mind, not worry about trying to decipher what the movie "means", go with a friend or two to see this movie, and make time to talk about various elements of the movie afterward.
8
Um, that movie was BRILLIANT. Does everything need a palatable candy coating to be worthwhile?

Everything about it was fucking magnificent. And yeah, I left feeling that my soul had been scrubbed down with steel wool and gin. It was devastating. I'm still not sure I'm ok.

Does art have to be "fun" to be good, just cuz they sell popcorn and soda in the lobby? I'd rather be affected. Moved. Changed. If I want to have fun, I can do whippets and watch Across the Universe again. . . which I might very well need to do in order to recover from this genius piece of filmmaking.
9
Gee thanks for the link to the review that starts off by telling you the ending of the movie!!!!!... at least Lindy knows to have spoiler warnings! Stop questioning her journalism and write your own.
10
And there IS joy in it. But we have to work for it.

Even if we understand every bit of darkness in the movie, even if we can identify with parts of it way more than we'd like to. . . most of us get to walk away knowing that we aren't him. That we can eventually retrieve our sanity after coping with loss, that there are people who love us and keep on loving us, that we complete at least some of our projects, and that sometimes we squeeze a bit of meaning out of the ways we spend our time.

If the film only mirrors the worst in life, and you can see all of the beautiful stuff in your life that it misses, then the film has shown you the beautiful stuff in a very personal way that it could never have done with a happy ending.
11
I dunno, I don't think Lindy's review is all that bad. I mean, she kind of doesn't give it it's due as being worthwhile for repeat viewing, but I think she does give the warning that a lot of potential viewers would probably want to have. I don't think anyone with the fortitude to enjoy this movie would be serious dissuaded by this review.

Plus, all the overblown intense commentary aside... I think she covers a lot with her different flavors of maybe, and for a mini-review it does a lot.

Please wait...

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