Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critics What's this?

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Generally favorable reviews- based on 175 Ratings

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 34
  2. Negative: 2 out of 34
  1. 100
  3. 88
    It's got more imagination than half a dozen movies combined; there's nothing else out there like this, and to me that's a very good thing.
  4. Sprawling, awe-inspiring, heartbreaking, frustrating, hard-to-follow and achingly, achingly sad movie.
  5. Hoffman, Morton and Jon Brion's aching score somehow capture the all-too-human need to get things right. If you're in a certain frame of mind, those moments make up for all the stagecraft.
  6. 50
    As the movie rambles along with its own brand of quasi-magical surrealism, the links to real experience grow scarcer and more frayed.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 47 out of 74
  2. Negative: 21 out of 74
  1. TrevorS.
    Apr 10, 2009
    You either get it or you don't. as we see from the scoring. i watched it 3 times in the theatre and once so far on DVD and am still just understanding it. but the first time i thought this seems important to me to understand. if you don't like it i can understand why. Expand
  2. Nov 29, 2013
    This is one of those movies that will make you rethink your whole life. It also has a lot of room for interpretation, which is something I find fascinating in movies and always will. Expand
  3. Nov 17, 2010
    Beautifully complex. You'll catch something new each time you watch it. Charlie Kaufman cements himself as the best screenwriter out there. Best movie of the decade and one of the best of all times. Expand
  4. JayK
    Nov 16, 2008
    It's too bad more people won't appreciate this exceptional movie. Completely unique, very ambitious, and totally successful, in my opinion. Clever script, great acting, moving execution. Charlie Kaufman shows again that he's a genius. Expand
  5. Oct 17, 2011
    I felt Synecdoche, New York was an unrealised masterpiece. The film's themes and characters came together in a powerful and moving way toward the end of the film, and there were a number of great moments. However, for every great scene, there were poorly executed and drawing-out ones. Much of the film was pretty average.

    The film's themes ended well, but were a mess for the most part. The themes of tragedy, depression, sickness, and aging are relevant, but in the film are often excessive, and unnecessarily unpleasant. The many crude bathroom scenes, for example, do not contribute to these themes in a meaningful way.

    I generally appreciate complex and surreal films, and I love some of Kaufman's other work. However, I felt this film was held together rather loosely. The surreal elements were creative, but felt just a bit out of place.

    In the end, the film came across to me as being a bit like a tattered gown of former extravagance. It was dotted with gems, but between the gems is a mess.
  6. asmith
    Nov 22, 2008
    Circuitous, self indulgent, melodramatic masturbation. A loosely stung together, incoherent narrative. Rather than admit that they can't quite put it together, people just pretend that it's profound. Expand
  7. TerenceS.
    Nov 21, 2008
    This movie is one of the worst shows that I have ever seen. Even in most horrible movies there's an element of camp. This has none. Don't bother with trying to find a point to it, I'll save you a trip, it has no point. Metacritic, you really let me down on this one. The movie itself is just a thrown together bundle of crap, that is probably just Kaufman expressing all of his own fears. I can only think of one reason Kaufman decided to direct it himself. Every self respecting director probably looked at the script and said, "There is no way I can make a movie out of this." Kaufman tries to combine elements of Jungian concepts, borrows imagry from an over used Shakespearian expression, and the movie suffers from Kaufman's own now over inflated ego. Expand

See all 74 User Reviews