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Look, directing requires juggling a ton of balls and I can barely imagine keeping the production of "Synechdoce" under control. The sheer enormity of the production, the multiple character developments and the story structure that literally spans a lifetime and involves a whole city, it's just mind boggling. I did admire the precise directing of "Michael Clayton" and also the controlled playfullness of "Kiss kiss bang bang", but to me the most impressive achievment is obvious - in this poll, less is not more.
Now, as much as I adore Mamet and House Of Games (though I'm still more fond of his follow up, Homicide), it's simply impossible to pick any movie except for Synecdoche. I've had very few movie going experiences in my 27 years that left me as breathless and utterly devistated as Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York. Hoffman's performance as Caden Cotard should go down as the late, great actor's best (and most challenging) work.
I am so happy to see Searching for Bobby Fisher make this poll. It's my second favorite movie of all time (after Eternal Sunshine), and I feel it's generally overlooked. I have been an avid listener and have gone back to listen to all your podcasts from the very beginning, and there has been so many top ten lists this could have been great for (those relating to parental relationships, especially) but I don't believe it has ever gotten mentioned. So, I began assuming that none of the current or previous hosts have seen it or liked it at all. I doubt it will get many votes, and also feel it's very likely the one Josh hasn't seen, but hope that it's inclusion means it's at least appreciated by Adam and/or Sam. Also, hope maybe having it on the list may get more people to see this gem (which is streaming on Amazon Prime).
It's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for me, if only because the Russian Roulette "Where is the Girl!" Intimidation technique is one of the my funniest moments in cinema. There are more high brow reasons to pick this film but then I'm not that high brow...
I get it. Synecdoche, NY is intellectual as hell. Charlie Kaufman is an audacious screenwriter and the film attempts to grapple with some serious issues and do real work, but it's a film that left me cold and twisting in the wind. I don't think it is as emotionally devastating as it aims to be, nor as readable as it needs to be to achieve greatness. I understand the appeal, but it never got me that way.
As much fun as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is, it doesn't quite have as much on its mind as my favorite film on this list (and beyond, it's an all-time pantheon level film for me), Michael Clayton. The film achieves greatness in its ability to let silence speak. There are so many times that the events are moving way faster than Clooney's Clayton can handle and those moments are not filled with words, they are filled with silence. Another commenter talked about the ending of the film, and that is a perfect example. Michael is alone in the back of a cab, processing the events of the last few days, and words aren't even necessary. The film resists simply being a polemic on corporate greed and corporate culture, which would drag it down with a leaden preachiness capable of murdering the pace of the film, by giving us a conflicted hero stuck between a system that has twisted him into the person he is today and the idea of who he wants to be. The uneasiness of the ending captures the tension of a man who has achieved a concrete win against corrupt forces, while being wholly incapable of solving the larger problems of corporate culture. The film is taut, well-acted, engaging, and full of indirect insight into corporate culture. It's a brilliant film all around, more than brilliant enough to make me forget that Duplicity ever happened.
"Synechdoche, New York," all the way. I know Adam is probably torn between that and Gilroy's "Michael Clayton," also a great film, but Kaufman is a better writer, a more ambitious, riskier director, and even though Kaufman hasn't made anything in a while, his stock is still really high, while Gilroy's has fallen a bit.
Ok, time to make some wild accusations. I'm guessing Josh hasn't seen "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and that he doesn't like "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," because…he thought it didn't really go anywhere very interesting, despite what he calls a solid cast and interesting setup. My total shot-in-the-dark guess is that Josh felt like it relied on its audience's enjoyment of the fact that it's a movie about noir movies, and did't make its own way. (Meanwhile, I really like the movie.)
**I haven't looked at his site, so I have no idea if he's even reviewed KKBB, am going solely off his tone during the show. Again…WILD ACCUSATIONS. Also, I'm trying to see if I can read Josh's mind. :)
I'm going with House of Games, because no one in the history of cinema uses the f-word as a form of punctuation quite the way Mamet does. If these other films could even attempt his unique genius, they might have a chance for me.
This game seems rigged. If anyone shows the slightest hint of surprise at Synecdoche, New York winning this thing, they have clearly never listened to the show before.
Not that Synecdoche, New York isn't my vote. Because it certainly is. Clearly the best of the bunch--call me a Filmspotting nation zombie member, I guess. Though my hunch is that Michael Phillips will somehow write-in vote for Dragonwyck, the 1946 directorial debut of Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
I'm not surprised to see Synecdoche, NY at the top of the list, since it's certainly a Filmspotting favorite, but I am a little bit disappointed. As blasphemous as this might sound, I actually think Synecdoche would have benefitted from a different director at its helm. Charlie Kaufman's talent and vision are undeniable, but unlike his other major works, Synecdoche has always struck me as too sprawling and unfocused for its own good. The performances are there, the set design is there, and the great dialogue is there, but the direction, so to speak, is lacking. So many of the scenes in the film work so well as isolated episodes or vignettes, but the project as a whole feels disjointed and, particularly towards the end, frustratingly dull.
Many would argue, I'm sure, that "that's the point," and on an intellectual level, I can appreciate that. After all, life is messy. Why impose a tight, focused structure on it? Well, for me, this question isn't rhetorical. Films can get at life's deepest pursuits and truths, but at the end of the day, they are still artificial. And in so many ways (even in a film like Synecdoche, NY), Kaufman revels in the artifice. I only wish that he had tightened up this film and introduced a more dynamic narrative arc.
In contrast to this overblown and "deliberately paced" (but admittedly intellectually compelling) mess, 'Michael Clayton' emerges from this list as the top dog in my mind. The performances are nuanced and exciting, the cinematography is stylish and stunning, the musical score is subdued and suspenseful, and the plot, while fast-paced enough to make for a thrilling ride, includes some genuinely touching moments. For some reason, I've also always loved the introduction to Swinton's character, when she repeatedly rehearses her presentation, altering her inflections slightly each time as she speaks to mirrors, walls, and, ultimately, a boardroom.
For my money, 'Clayton' is the most entertaining film on the list, but it's also the tightest script and most focused cinematic vision.
Synecdoche, New York is the clear champion though that doesn't discredit the other films. Kaufman was just able to completely capture me with his directorial debut and it still captivates after many viewings. The scope is magnificent and it features one of the best and most intimate performances from the brilliant Phillip Seymour Hoffman and some of Jon Brion’s best work as well. I saw this film for the first time my senior year of high school and it still impacts me after graduating college, a fact which is not true for other flicks that wowed me back then. The ambition alone is impressive but the fact that Kaufman succeeded is monumental.
Synecdoche will run away with this, as it should. But "Michael Clayton" only continues to grow in my estimation as a rare and taught thriller with something meaningful to say about information as power. I sort of wish Synedoche weren't here, so Cllayton would have a fighting chance.
In a nod to an actor and a director at the top of their collective games, the end credits sequence with Clooney in the back of the cab -- a silent lingering shot -- sums up everything Clayton feels about what has transpired. (His consternation, his exhaustion, his well-nurtured ego are all on display in that one tight face shot). Fascinating to me that it took a screenwriter to figure out that when you've got Clooney, just shoot his damn face. A lot.
So, much as it kills me, Synecdoche gets my vote. I haven't been able to wash that film off all these years later, and I don't ever want to.
To be honest, all these men are great. I voted for Steven Zaillian only because Searching for Bobby Fischer is one of my absolute favorite films, but I couldn't name another film of his to save my life. The inclusion of Mamet is troubling as he's a different breed from the rest of these names.
I am shocked, SHOCKED, that you neglected to include Lawrence Kasdan and Body Heat. After the triumphant Raiders of the Lost Ark screenplay and The Emprire Strikes Back (which he wrote with Leigh Brackett) Kasdan changed gears to write the witty "fish out of water" rom-com Continental Divide. Then he debuted as a director with Body Heat. Back when William Hurt and Kathleen Turner were sexy and Ted Danson was cool. It took the Double Indemity template and turned simmering sexual tension up to the boiling point. Funny, thrilling and just a little bit naughty, it was a Formative film in my High School education. From your list? Kiss Kiss, I suppose.
Synecdoche, NY, without a doubt, though I havnt seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Mamet, for me, is hit and miss, and I kinda liked Michael Clayton, but Kaufman is responsible for 3 of my top 100 of all time, including S, NY.
I have to go with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang on this one. I love Michael Clayton (which is largely an unknown film within my young film community) and have not seen Synechdoche, NY (a fact which I suppose makes me a bad film student), but I can't imagine either one stacking up to Shane Black's Christmas classic. Robert Downey, Jr. made his two best movies in the period between his stint in rehab and his turn as Iron Man: The first was Fincher's masterpiece Zodiac, the second was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang--equally masterful, but in vastly different ways. It's funny, charming, and seemingly effortlessly original piece I return to all the time, and will certainly be on my permanent Christmas film rotation from here to eternity.
Of the five given, I'll go with "House of Games," strong enough a con man movie to compensate for a terrible lead performance by Lindsay Crouse (probably as much an issue with Mamet's direction of women as it is with her). But I'm going to make a case for an older directorial debut by an established screenwriter, one Mr. John Huston with "The Maltese Falcon." Huston wrote or co-wrote a number of big movies, like the Bette Davis vehicle "Jezebel," and two films Huston worked as a screenwriter for, "Sergeant York" and "High Sierra," were released just a few months before "The Maltese Falcon," with the former earning him and his many co-writers an Oscar nomination and the latter helping launch Humphrey Bogart into stardom, which "The Maltese Falcon" only cemented. Personally, I think Bogie rarely found a better director for his cynical, tough guy persona than Huston, whose films about jaded loners and harsh worlds were as briskly paced and darkly funny as they were cruel, and "The Maltese Falcon" set a perfect template for what Huston was so good at.