Video: Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in “Synecdoche, New York”

Charlie Kaufman is known for his challengingly original Oscar-nominated screenplays, such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [which you can watch for free in its entirety right here on Fancast], Adaptation, Being John Malkovich and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Now he’s stepping into the director’s chair with a strange film called Synecdoche, New York. That’s sin-ECK-do-key, which is a play on the real town of Schenectady, New York.

In this film, Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as a theater director by the name of Caden Cotard, who has come to Broadway after succeeding in regional theater in Schenectady. He’s working on his soulful and brutally realistic masterpiece, which involves gathering a cast of actors and having them live artificial versions of real lives inside a Manhattan warehouse, which contains a miniature mockup of the city outside. While the fictionalized version of his life plays out, his real life begins to unravel until the lines between reality and artifice are blurred, which is a concept Kaufman loves to explore in his work.

Also starring Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Michelle Williams, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Dianne Wiest and Tom Noonan, Synecdoche, New York is not an easily explainable film. It just needs to be seen.

Watch the trailer for Synecdoche, New York right here on Fancast.