SummaryIn Paris, things do not exactly get off to a good start for the newly arrived Yoav. He knocks on the door of the flat where he's supposed to stay, only to discover the place is empty. While he is taking a bath there, his belongings are stolen. Yet this young Israeli, who has arrived with such great expectations, will not be dissuaded that easily.... Read More
Directed By:Nadav Lapid
Written By:Nadav Lapid, Haim Lapid
Synonyms
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
84
User score
Mixed or Average
5.6
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
91% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
9% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Oct 24, 2019
100
One word for Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, a movie with a hero obsessed with words, is astonishing. Other words apply to this Israeli feature, in subtitled French and Hebrew, that’s set in Paris. They include, in no particular order, fascinating, infuriating, frightening, lyrical and befuddling. Plus deadpan funny and frequently stunning as a bittersweet ode to contemporary France, one that’s suffused with New Wave verve.
Oct 28, 2019
90
That’s part of the beauty of this film: It games out very real, very human impulses to their surreal breaking points, only to uncover even greater truths.
User score
Mixed or Average
42% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
27% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
31% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
Apr 11, 2020
3
Theater of the absurd that seems more anti-Semitic than satirical. We found nobody to like or admire. The French characters seemed to constitute a lost generation just waiting for a pandemic to clean up on them. Plenty of full frontal nudity but not where I, as a hetero male, might have appreciated it. Lots of suggestions of bisexuality but little beyond that. One wonders what motivated the writer of this sad spectacle. I'll give it a 3 for artsy-fartsy but that's being generous.
Nov 16, 2020
1
Kinda meh. I know it suppose to be a satire. But it's the end message that's so righ wing propaganda like. "Europe is so welcoming of immigrants they are cucking it and Jews place is in Israel that's where they belong" ok whatever I guess. Story wise there's not much either.
Nov 6, 2019
88
Synonyms turns increasingly oblique in its final half hour, as it dawns on Yoav that the door he’s hammering at may never open and let him in. But the sight of this desolate young man strutting about Paris in a borrowed orange trenchcoat is not one you’ll soon forget, nor the exhilarating film that swirls around him.
Feb 21, 2019
83
As an exercise in depicting the disjointed link between national and personal identity, Synonyms is dazzling. As a portrait of displacement in a world becoming both more globalized and more nationalistic, it is a testament.
Feb 15, 2019
80
Lapid continues to exhibit a singular blend of intensity and absurdity, as well as a distinct attention to cinematic craft.
Oct 22, 2019
67
Above all, it’s about the impossible desire, shared by both expats and artists, to forge an identity of one’s own. But whereas the films it quotes sought to create cryptic and contrapuntal meanings, Lapid errs on the side of the loudly obvious, building to a final shot that might as well be a thesis statement for the rest of the film.
Oct 24, 2019
55
Filmmaker and subject also share a disdain for restraint, shouting and jostling to ensure we’ve gotten their point. But while their parallel passions aren’t exactly subtle, they do make their mark.
Feb 11, 2024
0
If the professional reviewers liked this tripe, I'd like to vote them off the island and use what was saved to send the filmmakers to film school. And I'd like to be paid for the time I wasted watching this. I'll prorate for the last third, since I fast forwarded through that part.
Production Company:
- SBS Films
- Pie Films
- Komplizen Film
- Arte France Cinéma
- The Cinema Project
- Rabinovich Fundation
- Ministry of Culture and Sport
- ARTE
- WDR/Arte
- Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)
- Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA)
- L'Aide aux cinémas du monde
- Institut français
Release Date:Oct 25, 2019
Duration:2 h 3 m
Awards
International Cinephile Society Awards
• 5 Nominations
Awards of the Israeli Film Academy
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
Berlin International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
