22. SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
 
United States
dir. Charlie Kaufman
world premiere 2008
U.S. release 2008
 

 
Because it's the Moulin Rouge! of total, congestive depression. Like Luhrmann, Kaufman knows that his intensest emotions rhyme with pathetic clichés, so his strategies are to stretch them to a colossal scale and embed such creative nuance at every moment that the feelings reconnect. I love both movies, but this is the one that lingers.