Negation Delirium

Synecdoche, New York might be the best American film of 2008.

So, why can I name a dozen American films from 2008 that I like more than it?

List-making is just something that comes natural to geeks. I make lists. Therefore, I geek. In relation to film, when I make up a list of "best films of the year," what I always, always mean is: these are MY favorite films of the year. These are the films that meant the most to ME. I am NOT trying to objectively identify what may be the most important film of the year. I don't even know if I could do that. If I could and if I were doing that, I might look to Synecdoche, New York as the best (American) picture of 2008.

Charlie Kaufman is one of our finest screenwriters (even if I do continue to actively dislike him). Here, in his debut as director, he proves himself as an eminently capable director with a promising future. I'm impressed. I'll say it now - from this point on, I will be at the theater, opening weekend, for each new Kaufman picture.

Synecdoche is Kaufman's best screenplay so far. It also feels like it is his most personal. There is a tighter focus (maybe also due to Kaufman being the director) in its examination of the same idea at the heart of each Kaufman script - How can we live with one another when all I can know is ME, and even that not so well?

Kaufman is one of our purest functioning nihilists. He recognizes, like Cotard, that he is already dead. Fuck everybody. Amen.

The only comfort that Kaufman ever gives his characters is the fleeting touch of another human being, but Kaufman is honest enough to be clear that these touches are impure and imperfect. More often than not, they provide as much pain as they do comfort.

It almost seems vogue at the current time to label a filmmaker as a "nihilist." Most of these filmmakers labeled as such by various critics couldn't be further from what this label means and implies. I think, in particular, of the Coen brothers, who often face this charge. It's hard for me to think of American moviemakers more humanistic and moralistic than these brothers. To hear them described as nihilists, to me, is laughable. I haven't watched enough Haneke yet to be sure, but I don't think that he belongs here either.

Kaufman, though, knows nihilism. He is completely consistent in his worldview and I love him for it. But, I can't follow him. And I hope that he achieves redemption. Because that is what is lacking from all of his scripts.

Redemption.

Kaufman is a man already dead. In my weaker moments (almost always), so am I. That is why I need redemption in art as in life. Gran Torino, for instance (a much weaker script, but just as personal a film), may not be half the movie that Synecdoche, New York is, but it at least affirms waking up to some sort of life. All that Kaufman knows is the walking dead. I'm familiar enough with these zombies (my people) to count myself as one of the many, but I can't stop here. I need sacrifice and resurrection. I need new life. Otherwise, all is lost.

O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.

Higher than our heads. Amen.