On the Couch

Synecdoche, New York
Directed by: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener

Being beaten over the head with quality is a curious experience. While there’s a lot about the latest brain-melting opus from writer/director Charlie Kaufman to make you want to hold said author down and beat the pretension out of him with a Wiffle bat, there’s so many brilliant ideas and outstanding performances that you just can’t.
Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Caden Cotard, a successful theatre director whose home life with artist Adele (Catherine Keener) is collapsing. Suffering from myriad health problems, his wife leaves and Caden falls into a depression that is partially lifted when he unexpectedly wins the McArthur Genius Grant.
The massive financial reward for his directorial prowess acts as an impetus for Caden produce greatest the work of his, or anyone else’s life. He rents a massive warehouse in Manhatten, a huge cast and proceeds to direct them in a play based on life itself for the rest of his life.
With something of a skewed take on linear story telling, Synecdoche, New York is something of a head-scratcher. Cotard’s self-obsession, sickness and, in the latter stages of the film, the blurred line between reality and the created world of the play, make the idea of a story told straight through something of a foreign concept.
While this is annoying at the start of the film, the hypnotic confusion kind of sucks you in, making Synecdoche, New York an experience as well as excellent example of film-making.
So long as you can tolerate a whole lot of navel-gazing.
And herein lies the problem. You need a certain amo-unt of patience to get a lot out of Kaufman’s latest. And, if you’re not in a giving mood, it could just wind you up something horrible.
Worth a look though.
4/5

Red Cliff
Directed by: John Woo
Starring: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi

It’s been a long time since John Woo has shown off his true directorial prowess. After over 15 years in Hollywood churning out action movies that routinely fell somewhere between “disappointing” and “good, but disappointing in comparison to anything he did in Hong Kong”, Woo has gone back to China to make this expansive historical epic.
And what a good idea it was for him to do it.
Based around the Battle of the Red Cliffs, an important battle in the beginning of the end of the powerful Han Dynasty, Woo followed the details of the battle, and the events surrounding it, in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, an ancient Chinese historical text (thanks Wikipedia). Suffice to say, there’s intrigue, cool beards, battles and inscrutibility abound.
It breaks down to two rogue states within the Han empire taking on the prime minister, Cao Cao. With the emperor firmly under his thumb, Prime Minister Evilbeard is also using the war to wrangle the wife of one of the leaders out from under him. Nefarious, no?
Red Cliff plays out like a slightly less expansive Lord of the Rings or a smarter, more dignified 300. Released in a longer, two-part version for Asian markets, the European cut is a lengthy, but worthwhile 148 minutes.
Sub-titled and supremely acted, the expansive story is chock full of excellently executed battle scenes which, for the most part, shy away from the “dancing on trees”-style of supernatural kung fu that was such a feature of the likes of Hero and House of Flying Daggers.
Not that proceedings are entirely bereft of coll chop-socky shenannigans, it’s just that in the hands of an on-form Woo, proceedings have a believability that makes what could feel like a fairytale, a relatable and exciting slice of history.
4/5