The House Next Door

By Keith Uhlich

A note is struck in Synecdoche, New York—perhaps the one that commences Jon Brion and Deanna Storey’s smoky-’n’-sad after-hours ballad “Little Person,” which closes writer/director Charlie Kaufman’s latest dive into the gaping, unforgiving maw of existence. The tone, always in a morose minor key, remains unvaried for a good two hours until Brion and Storey grant the proceedings (over a blessed fade-to-white) some retrospective resonance. Not to say that the previous 120 minutes of poseur artistry (begetting 4 minutes of genuine invention) is improved so much as given a finish (an elating flourish) it doesn’t deserve. Para-referencing Herzog’s Stroszek, the music does the heavy lifting though the headless chickens dance.
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