Charlie Kaufman’s latest movie equates redundant mood metaphors with illumination. The mind-bending story is intentionally opaque, symbolically overwrought and vexingly long. Don’t look for plot. The only thing constant: a sense of doubt and melancholy. The acting is great, and there is much sadness and existential horror over inabilities to make human connections and to understand people, but many movies have said a lot more about these themes without deconstructing individual emotions into millions of enigmatic, quark-size bits. By the time the characters start reciting Pauline Kael, you might want to switch over to Animal Planet to cleanse your palate with a pride of lions eating a gazelle. Reviewed on Sept. 10, 2020