The Citizen Review " A man goes to the movies. A critic must be honest enough to admit that he is that man." -Robert Warshow

Average Grade: A+

Jack says: A+

"Wow." That is most likely the first thing that you will say upon viewing Synecdoche, New York. But perhaps you will be too strained for even that. In that case you ask yourself, "What just happened?" The question most alarming and intriguing that I thought myslef was, "Is this even a movie?" It's true, this 'film' isn't really watched by anyone. It's thouroughly experienced. The movie lures you in and fully encloses you in itself.

This movie of sorts is astounding. It made me tired to watch. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a playwrite and theater director who is just a plain misfit of life. He can't seem to get anything right. But he does appear to be a genious. And history has shown us that most geniouses plainly suck at life. Caden's wife leaves on a trip to Berlin with thier daughter, Olive for her art exhibition and never returns. He falls for a younger woman whose home is always on fire. He remarries an actress in his play which ends tumultuously.

The first half of the film is rather normal but extensively quirky, but in a totally believable way. Then comes the second act, which is still somewhat of a mystery in my mind. Caden receives a MacArther fellowship and instantly starts planning and writing a new, bold, brave, honest and obscure 'play' of sorts. He is doing this valiantly because he's afraid he's dying, by the way. The play that he creates is the most maddening thing I think I've ever heard of. I could never in a million years explain this part of the film in words perfectly, so I won't even try. You have to watch it for yourself.

The movie makes you lose your own sense of time, as Caden does. You get lost in a confusing world while beholding it. It is a frightening and amazing thing. The film is indescribable at best, and is different for each person in the world. In this film, director Charlie Kauffmen seems to have recreated the standards for a modern-day epic. There may not be rolling hills, billowing dresses, grand explosions or heart renching war-love conflicts but the film is huge in every way possibe. The emotion jumps off the screen and hits you in the face.

Matthew Says: A+

Synecdoche, New York is a compicated film, even in it's title. The word synecdoche means one part representing a whole. Which, if you see the movie makes sense.

The film takes place in the second half of Caden Cotard's life. Caden is a playwrite with a wife, Adele, who is a painter who paints on peculierly small canvases. They have a daughter, Olive,whom they both love dearly. He has just finished a play- a restaging of "Death of a Salesman", get the irony? His wife doesn't come, and later tells him that she and Olive will be going to Berlin, the trip the family was going to go on together, by themselves. But only for a month. Well that month soon turns into forever.

He becomes infatuated with the girl who works at the theater's box office, Hazel. Then he falls for the lead actress in his play, Claire. He becomes confused, and finds out he has some disease of somesort, and thinks he is going to die. Then he gets a letter in the mail, with a grant from the Macarther Foundation. With it, he stages a play about his life, his one last mark on the world.

He stages his play in a strange little, well, not little dome that looks like and undiscoverd country. He makes the play as he goes along with his life making other domes in and outside of it, until each of them is a replica of New York.

It is Charlie Kauffman's directoral debut, but he has written many other films, such as Being John Malkavich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Sotless mind. He also wrote this. It has a great cast, with wonderful performance. This film is truly like nothing you've ever experienced. There is so much more to the movie that I havn't written about, but I can't write about all of it. You'll have to see it yourself.

Sincerely,

The Citizen Review

Jack says: B+

This movie was a hard one to rate. It is beautifully rendered and realized, with lush cinematography and well-coordinated sets and costumes. It may seem, to a discriminating film eye to be simplistic and shallow, but it could also be perceived as a clear storytelling. Some of the films parts are rather predictable, but it really doesn't make it any less powerful or heartbreaking.

Asa Butterfield, who plays the story's hero, is brilliant as the innocent counterpart of the family and is a symbol of the corruption of human kind during World War II. I can perceive him becoming Englands 'next big thing'. The rest of the actors do a fair job of portraying a Nazi family at a tough place, especially Vera Farmiga and David Thewlis.

As I said, the movie is heart-renching. One thing that is very unpredictable about this film is the last scene. You may want to watch this in the comfort of your own home for two reasons. 1) The final scene in the film may be too much to bear on a large screen. 2) You may find yourself screaming at the screen, at the evil of the Nazi's and the horrible irony of the last moment.

Matthew Says: A-

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, being a "Holocaust movie" is, actually, rather clever. I shows the Holocaust through the eyes of an eight year-old. But, not a Jewish boy, a German boy- a boy who's father is a Nazi soldier.

The boy, Bruno, and his family move from Berlin to Poland in a peculier house just a mile away from an Extermination Camp. The Boy thinks it is merely a farm, and wonders why the "farmers" wear pajamas all day. He soon meets one of the Jews inside the camp while exploring through the territory. They form a friendship between the fence and all seems well to Bruno. But he soon finds out the truth, well, some of it. He leads himself into a dangerous journey to stay with the boy.

The film is beautifuly shot, with laivsh scenery, costumes and cinematography. It is also, as you might expect, heart-wrenching, and for anyone who thinks that the movie should be sad but isn't needs to check and see if their heart is still beating properly.

Sincerely,

The Citizen Review