Synecdoche, NY

November 21 2008, 7:00pm

You can tell that this is a work of total committed genius the whole time you're watching it, but that doesn't make it go down any easier. I really admired the commitment to deadpan surrealism, exemplified in both the house-always-on-fire and the tattooed-daughter threads. I also sort of admired the commitment to not giving us much of anything to latch onto emotionally (not directly, anyway); by the end, there is a cumulative emotional effect, but it's all achieved indirectly. The most "experimental" semi-mainstream movie I've seen in a long time, and I value that, even though I didn't always enjoy every moment.