Finally watched Synecdoche, New York. I've had the envelope sitting for maybe two weeks. It wasn't something I was looking forward to. Tough to summarize my thoughts, as there certainly was a lot to try to put together. I think the main problem for me was exemplified by when Hazel tells Caden that he's not fun and Sammy is. Caden is just such a pathetic mope that it's hard to feel all that bad about his life ending. If it came across that he enjoyed more than 2% of his life, it would have had more of an effect. Even things that should make him happy are always overwhelmed by disappointment. He cries every time he has sex. Which is surprisingly often, with pretty hot women somehow. The film similarly buries every possible uplifting or encouraging thought, most notably when the line about every life being a lead role is immediately buried by the priest's remarks. His was the most discouraging message. I can avoid being Caden, but those thoughts are always latent and inescapable. While it would be easy to pick on the narrative structure, I figured I would just let that go. I do think David Lynch's wtf-isms are better at appearing to mean more than they do. I'm sure there is lots of meaning under the surface that I did not grasp, but a lot of it felt forced.
The production values were extremely impressive, which surprised me, as I didn't think there would have been much of a budget for this. It was worth watching the movie overall, but I think for grand movies about life I'd take Magnolia by far.