ArtsBeat

If ever there was a film that cried out for an open public forum, it's screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's debut as a director, "Synecdoche, New York." (Read my review here.) Is it a fraud perpetrated by a self-appointed movie intelligentsia? Or a work of enduring genius? Or something in between?

Whatever it is, there isn't a single scene in the movie that isn't open to somebody somewhere having something new and fresh to say about it.

Here, if ever there was one, is a movie we can all teach each other about.

So class is in session. Please raise your voice and be heard. Everyone who's seen the film is ready for you.

--Jeff Simon

(Photo: Michelle Williams and Charlie Kaufman on the set of "Synecdoche, New York.")