Anomalisa

With “Synecdoche, New York,” the writer of the trippy “Being John Malkovich” takes us not inside the body of an eccentric actor, but inside his own head for a couple of hours.

Still, even fans of the cerebral Charlie Kaufman may find this falls under the general heading “too much information.”

Kaufman’s messy, indulgent writing-directing debut began with a bad-pun title (synecdoche, sounds like “Schenectady”), plays around with language until you roll your eyes, and then settles into an existential ramble through the life of a Schenectady, N.Y., theater director who spends decades casting, directing and rehearsing the vast “play” that is his life – a life full of drama, tragedy, “stars” and dozens of extras.

Synecdoche, a figure of speech in which “a part is used for the whole,” is the magic pun here.

The director, Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), given an unlimited budget and no set time to ever bring the curtain up on this show, tips u