Synecdoche, New York (/sɪˈnɛkdəki/ sin-EK-də-kee)[3] is a 2008 American postmodern[4] psychological drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman in his directorial debut.

It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as an ailing theater director who works on an increasingly elaborate stage production and whose extreme commitment to realism begins to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality.

Sony Pictures Classics acquired the United States distribution rights, paying no money but agreeing to give the film's backers a portion of the revenues.

[2][6] The story and themes of Synecdoche, New York polarized critics: some called it pretentious or self-indulgent, but others declared it a masterpiece, with Roger Ebert ranking it as the decade's best.

After the success of his production of Death of a Salesman, Caden unexpectedly receives a MacArthur Fellowship, giving him the financial means to pursue his artistic interests.

As the mockup inside the warehouse grows increasingly mimetic of the city outside, Caden continues to seek solutions to his personal crises.

After a failed attempt at a fling with Hazel (the woman who works in the box office), he marries Claire, an actress in his cast, and has a daughter with her.

Caden buries himself ever deeper into his magnum opus, blurring the line between reality and the world of the play by populating the cast and crew with doppelgängers.

He lives out his days in the model of Adele's apartment under the replacement director's instruction while some unexplained calamity occurs in the warehouse leaving ruins and bodies in its wake.

Finally, he prepares for death as he rests his head on the shoulder of an actress who had previously played Ellen's mother, seemingly the only person in the warehouse still alive.

As the scene fades to gray, Caden begins to say that now he has an idea of how to do the play, when the director's voice in his ear cuts him off with his final cue: "Die."

The two began working on a film dealing with things they found frightening in real life rather than typical horror-film tropes.

Capgras delusion is a psychiatric disorder in which sufferers perceive familiar people (spouses, siblings, friends) to have been replaced by identical imposters.

"Practically everything in Caden's grotesque existence betokens mortality and decay," Jonathan Romney of The Independent wrote, "whether it be skin lesions, garbled fax messages or the contents of people's toilet bowls.

"[26] Some reviewers have noted that the film seems inspired by postmodernist philosopher Jean Baudrillard's concept of simulacra and simulation.

She has Marcel Proust's Swann's Way (the first volume of In Search of Lost Time) and Franz Kafka's The Trial; both are related to the film's motifs.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Charlie Kaufman's ambitious directorial debut occasionally strains to connect, but ultimately provides fascinating insight into a writer's mind.

[18][33][34] In his review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert said, "I watched it the first time and knew it was a great film ... the subject of 'Synecdoche, New York' is nothing less than human life and how it works.

[7] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said, "To say that [it] is one of the best films of the year or even one closest to my heart is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now ...

Despite its slippery way with time and space and narrative and Mr. Kaufman’s controlled grasp of the medium, Synecdoche, New York is as much a cry from the heart as it is an assertion of creative consciousness.

"[38] American film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote that "it seems more like an illustration of his script than a full-fledged movie, proving how much he needs a Spike Jonze or a Michel Gondry to realize his surrealistic conceits.

[41] Both Kimberley Jones and Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle named it the best film of the year, as did Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter.

[42] Those who placed it in their top ten included Manohla Dargis of The New York Times, Richard Corliss of Time, Shawn Anthony Levy of The Oregonian, Josh Rosenblatt of the Austin Chronicle, Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News, Ty Burr and Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe, Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Scott Foundas of LA Weekly, and Walter Chaw, Bill Chambers and Ian Pugh of Film Freak Central (all three of whom placed it at number one).

[47] A number of critics have compared the film to the American docu-comedy television series The Rehearsal created by Nathan Fielder.