Synecdoche, New York Trailer Released

If you look above, you can view the trailer for Synedoche, New York, which is the directorial debut of bizzare (and Academy Award Winning) writer Charlie Kaufman.

For those who aren't familiar with Kaufman (and if you are not, you should be ashamed of yourself), he is the writer of strange classics such as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (one of my favorites). Kaufman has always been able to write some truly amazing scripts dealing with crazy concepts, human insecurity, romance, fear, and many other things. To be honest, the guy is really hard to describe and he's really one of a kind in a town that is full of... well, people who are basically all the same. 

As for Synedoche, New York, it appears that it will be just as bizarre than his other films have been. Check out this plot synopsis:

"Theater director Caden Cotard (Hoffman) is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele (Keener) has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive (Goldstein) with her. His therapist, Madeleine Gravis (Davis), is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counseling him. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel (Morton) has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one.

Worried about the transience of his life, he leaves his home behind. He gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in New York City, hoping to create a work of brutal honesty. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. The years rapidly fold into each other, and Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece, but the textured tangle of real and theatrical relationships blurs the line between the world of the play and that of Caden's own deteriorating reality."

How crazy is that? After watching the trailer itself, I must say I am intrigued. It looks just as weird, paranoid, and touching as the rest of the films that Kaufman has written. It also looks a lot more frightening (and from what I hear, it is Kaufman's version of the horror film) than the rest of his stuff. It should also be interesting to see Kaufman's directing style as he has never made a film before. From what I saw in the trailer, it looks like he has it down but who knows how far that goes in scenes when strong emotion is involved. Also, how cool is it to see Tom Noonan pop up? I've been a fan of the guy since growing up watching him in films such as Monster Squad and Robocop 2. He really is a great actor and it's great to see him popping up in films like this. The guy is intense. And, as always, Philip Seymour Hoffman is looking to be awesome as he always is. 

So far, the film has garnered a lot of mixed reviews in early screenings (with reviews ranging from it being a work of brillance to it being a complete disaster) and I can see how either of these is possible from not only the concept but the trailer itself. It looks like Kaufman is really walking the tightrope with this project and it could turn anyway (but from my view, it's looking more towards the positive side).

Anyways, no matter what happens, it's guaranteed to be more original and unique than anything Hollywood has produced in the last five years. That is for sure.

*Note: Sorry for the lack of major updates as of late. This week has basically killed me in every way possible and I've tried my best to get an update every day. I'm going to try to do a News Wrap for the Week on stories I have missed in the past few days sometime this weekend, along with a review of Righteous Kill. I'll try to do better but I really have zero free time as of late. I'm dying here. Forgive me.*

Source: Trailer Addict