101 Films You Need to See Before Graduation: Synecdoche, New York

The adventurous directorial debut of writer Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) follows a theater director (the great Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his defining roles) struggling with work, health, and relationships while creating a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of a new play. When he assembles the cast and attempts to direct them within his created city, the actors and characters—and reality and fantasy—become increasingly difficult to distinguish from one another. A hard film to describe, Roger Ebert wrote that it is about “nothing less than human life and how it works...it encompasses every life and how it copes and fails.” (123 mins., DCP)

Synecdoche, New York was picked as one of the 101 Films You Need to See Before Graduation by faculty at Ohio State's Knowlton School of Architecture; the film’s vision of a recreated Manhattan is unforgettable. Erik Herrmann, associate professor of architecture at the Knowlton School and codirector of Outpost Office, joins us on January 31 to introduce the film. (There is no introduction to the screening on January 14.)