Synecdoche, New York · reception & legacy

How Synecdoche, New York has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

It flopped hard in 2008 — polarizing at Cannes, barely $4M at the box office — but Roger Ebert crowned it the best film of the decade, and it's since climbed into the canon, landing in the BBC's 2016 critics' poll of the century's greatest films.

What's debated

The eternal split: is it the most profound film ever made about being alive, or a punishingly self-indulgent slog — 'devastating masterpiece' vs 'misery porn' is a genuinely unsettled fight.

Its footprint

Ebert's 'the best movie of the decade' blurb follows it everywhere, the perpetually burning house is one of the most referenced images in 2000s cinema, and the deliberately unpronounceable title (a pun on Schenectady) is a running joke in itself.

Where it stands

A Letterboxd sacred text — the go-to entry on every 'films that emotionally destroyed me' list and a rite of passage for the sad-cinephile crowd.