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Synecdoche, New York: Frustrating, Unsettling, and Worth It

BuzzSugar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:15:16 -0800

Synecdoche, New York, is a haunting film. In the weeks since I saw it, I'm not sure a day has gone by that I haven't thought about it. It's also a humongous, confusing mess. But I'm willing to forgive Charlie Kaufman that; the high points are too high not to.

As the writer of such films as Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kaufman has become known for his surreal — and, yet, ultimately, very real — explorations of humanity. Synecdoche, New York, his directorial debut, is maybe his most precise work on that theme, tracing his main character through years of middle age, declining health, and the potent desire to do something while there's still time. Kaufman may be suffering from a bit of that desire himself, as he tosses all kinds of twists into his story, some of which lead it astray. But that doesn't keep it from being a moving mood piece of a film.

Synecdoche, New York actually has a mostly logical main story: Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a local theater director producing a lowish-rent production of Death of a Salesman and struggling to maintain his marriage with his more-famous wife, Adele (Catherine Keener). When she takes off for Germany with their daughter and Caden receives a MacArthur grant, he decides to stage a giant-scale theater piece about life (yes, just that: life), setting it inside a towering replica of New York. Everything else spins off from there, so just

Movie Preview: Synecdoche, New York

BuzzSugar — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:30:08 -0700

Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, has been generating positive buzz ever since it premiered at Cannes this year. Time Magazine calls it "A miracle movie," while Variety claims it is "a wildly ambitious and gravely serious contemplation of life. The picture exerts power and artistic mystery." If this new trailer is any indication, I am starting to see what all the fuss is about.

Philip Seymour Hoffman leads a hugely talented cast (including Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis and many more) in this story in which "[a] theater director (Hoffman) struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play."

Synecdoche, New York will start with a limited release on Oct. 24. To check out the trailer,

TV Tonight: An American Crime on Showtime

BuzzSugar — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:00:11 -0700

An American Crime, which premieres tonight on Showtime, is certainly not going to be an easy film to watch. Even the trailer gives me the creeps. But that may be a credit to the performances in the film, which stars a handful of my favorite actors: Ellen Page, Catherine Keener, James Franco, and Bradley Whitford.

The film — which showed at Sundance in 2007 before being purchased by Showtime — is based on the true story of an Indiana woman (Keener) who abused a teenager in her care (Sylvia, played by Page) in 1960s Indianapolis. Keener's character, Gertrude, becomes a mother figure to Sylvia, who's living with Gertrude and her children while her parents are off traveling with a carnival. But somehow, Sylvia ends up on Gertrude's bad side — a side with vindictive acts and horrifying consequences.

Some dialogue is taken from court transcripts about the case, which are chilling in the trailer and must be even more so over the course of a full movie. I'm not sure if I can sit through this movie without it turning my stomach, but the quality of actors involved is so high, I might give it a shot. The movie premieres at 9 p.m. tonight and will be available On Demand starting May 11. To check out the trailer, just

Hamlet 2: The Teen Comedy

BuzzSugar — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:30:00 -0700

Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.
Variety brings us news of a little something called Hamlet 2 (yes, as in a sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet), a film starring Steve Coogan and Catherine Keener. The project will be the first produced by Eric Eisner's (son of former Disney chief Michael Eisner) production company L+E.

What's the deal?
The movie is a high school comedy focusing on "a teacher who tries to save his drama department by writing a sequel to William Shakespeare's Hamlet." One of the co-writers is Pam Brady, who has written all sorts of funny (or at least half-funny) stuff like the "South Park" movie, Team America, and Hot Rod.

Could be cool.
As Cinematical points out, the teen romp 10 Things I Hate About You is based on another Shakespearean work (and if you can name the title you can win points!), and that's a fun movie. Maybe this will be hilarious and just as fun.

Now the question is, what's next? What Shakespearean will be fodder for another teen flick?

Movie Preview: Sean Penn's Into the Wild

BuzzSugar — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:30:00 -0700

Oh, Sean Penn. I loved him in Mystic River so very much — that was a great career move. And now he's gone and directed an adaptation of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild and it's scheduled to open September 21. It's a good pick, really. A nice, bestselling pick. But this trailer promises little more than ooey-gooey dude-soul-search cheesiness. It stars Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless, an ambitious young man who graduates college, gives all his money away and hitchhikes to Alaska. Along the way he finds some friends and... he finds himself.

The trailer features some comforting familiar faces, like Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden and Vince Vaughn. But the overall tone of this is so overly sentimental, if there were a Lifetime Television for Men, this would be a made-for-TV movie on that channel. You might see what I mean when you watch the preview, so