Film: Garden State

[onetwothreefour]

i really, really, really liked this film, yet i still think that the review that cydonorb posted is perfectly valid. sure this film is full of cliches and at times it's quite trite, but it's also got some nice bits of droll humour, some pretty good performances and at least it's entertaining. the reason cliches are what they are is because they make a lot of sense in the first place, and though the overuse of them means this isn't one of the greatest scripts ever written, it is still full of those little life-affirming truths that seem to occur after the kind of epiphany that braff's character has.

i liked it a lot

 

[Sn2]

I didn't really like it. I thought it was about a notch above your standard MTV release. Sort of like the MTV movie for the college kid who actually has more than three working brain cells.

It started out rather promisingly (except for the random Coldplay song and silly medicine cabinet shot) and I thought it might turn out to be a nice black comedy in the same vein as Harold and Maude or something. But alas, after about 20 minutes the movie turned to shit. This film is so full of melodrama and adolescent navel gazing, I highly doubt anyone over the age of 30 would enjoy it. Yuck, it just made me cringe -- especially the bedside scene with the father and the terrible ending that felt like it was just thrown together in haste.

Also, what was with the humor? I thought it was also really stupid. Oh, the kid doesn't know who Aldous Huxley is, how cute and witty. Gee, there are voyeurs paying to watch people have sex in a hotel room...Method Man says titties. Silent Velcro? What the fuck?

The soundtrack is good on its own, but I hated the way the movie was kind of formed around it. It's almost like the director was daydreaming while listening to the songs, envisioning what would look cool to them, and it ended up remarkably superficial and weak -- like a music video. The music should not be so prominent and should really only serve as a complement to the film. It felt like I had a college radio station blaring in the background as I watched the movie.

 

[onetwothreefour]

i didn't like the ending either. at all.

 

[Sn2]

If you watch it closely, it's ridiculously uneven. Remember the great cinematography in the beginning (funeral scene, etc)? After that, it just sputtered out and lost momentum. I think the director got to a point where he just wanted to finish it and didn't care if the final product reeked of cliches, bad camera work, and cheap humor.

 

[Tanuki_23]

^I don't understand. You just point out scenes and say they're bad, so yes you watched it, but you don't say why. Why isn't the Huxley joke funny, I thought it was. Gee, there are all sorts of quirky scenes in movies, but why don't you like the one with Method Man. Silent velcroe, as apposed to what invention that a screenwriter should come up with. Also the cinematography evolves as the story evolves. It sets a different mood and shows the protagonist's personal changes.

 

[Sn2]

Perhaps I'm looking into it too much, one could just take it as a fun quirky film. If you liked it, hey nothing wrong with that.

 

[Finder]

I thought it was interesting how the entire movie was a slow awakening from the fog of anti-depressants. Sterile and lifeless at the beginning to something entirely different by the end.

 

[Strawberry_lovemuffin]

I just saw this on the weekend.

It might have been emotions left over from the mushrooms I ate the night before, but I bawled nearly all the way through.

Very poignant.

I don't like Natalie Portman though. She was okay in this but that ANNOYING, prissy little-girl voice, urgh.... she does good girl characters well (Senator Amidala) but I'm fucked if I know why they keep casting her as "quirky" or "fucked up" (this, and Closer). It's like casting Hi-5 as a bunch of crackheads.

But yeah. I loved Garden State; it made me want to leap up onto old rotting metal junk and scream in the rain, jump in pools and warm myself by the fire in abandoned mansions... talk to my dad... not be so jaded and sad. And that feeling's stayed for a couple of days now

And Zach Braff.... *faints* Just Delicious.

*goes to eat more shrooms*

 

[mean green 95]

i think this is one of the better movies i have seen. very original

 

[Sexy.Sadie]

I just saw this Movie on HBO. It started kinda slow. . but I ended up bawlin' at the end likea little wuss. . It's a good'en.

 

[Banquo]

This movie was fantastic. Why do great little films like this always get lost among the blockbusters and special effects films? I need to start paying more attention to movie reviews...but even reading the reviews for this film, many of the critics missed the boat.

 

[Finder]

I thought it was interesting how the entire movie was a slow awakening from the fog of anti-depressants. Sterile and lifeless at the beginning to something entirely different by the end.

Curiously, did anyone else feel this way? I know I'm quoting myself.

 

[Banquo]

Yeah, I agree. His all-white bedroom was just like an insane asylum. When we see the plane crashing around him in the beginning, he is incapable of feeling any emotion or sympathy for himself or his fellow passengers. At his restaurant job he is also withdrawn, not being able to respond to the frenzied atmosphere around him, the asshole customers, or the asshole boss. He sits rather listless at the house party (although there is some top rate drug acting around him). By the end of the movie, he is capable of feeling life and emotion. Along the way, there are several instances of awakening -- the discussion with his father, meeting the Natalie Portman character, yelling into the abyss, and, finally, running away from his flight back to Cali.

 

[mariacallas]

I don't like Natalie Portman though. She was okay in this but that ANNOYING, prissy little-girl voice, urgh.... she does good girl characters well (Senator Amidala) but I'm fucked if I know why they keep casting her as "quirky" or "fucked up" (this, and Closer). It's like casting Hi-5 as a bunch of crackheads.

But yeah. I loved Garden State; it made me want to leap up onto old rotting metal junk and scream in the rain, jump in pools and warm myself by the fire in abandoned mansions... talk to my dad... not be so jaded and sad. And that feeling's stayed for a couple of days now

LOL my sentiments exactly! I dunno but Leon and Star Wars aside, I cannot stand Natalie Portman. She annoys and irks me :/ Although I liked this movie a lot, watching Portman act like an overly idiosyncratic 20-something-year-old was painful , like an itch I couldnt scratch.

 

[telgard]

Fantastic movie. 4 stars definetly. well acted, directed, realistic, good length even. loved the story and it seems so real that you dont even consider if things look forced.

 

[xena]

as much as i love the movie (i gave it 4 stars) the soundtrack is even better.

 

[Finder]

I think, for good or ill, the movie makes the soundtrack and the soundtrack makes the movie.

 

[cravNbeets]

^^1 word:

singles

 

[*Venus*]

Although I liked this movie a lot, watching Portman act like an overly idiosyncratic 20-something-year-old was painful , like an itch I couldnt scratch.

Me too. I really loved this movie overall though and gave it 3 stars because the ending was like a really great climax that produced one of those weak ass orgasms. The journey was worth it and fun and the end didn't even seem all that important anyway.

 

[ego_loss]

I feel rather sad that I haven't commented on this film yet.

I saw this movie in the theatre when it first came out... several times in fact (one of the benefits of running a movie theatre).

I couldn't have asked for a better movie at that time of my life. It felt so very relevent to the life I had been living.

The even sillier thing is that I agree with all the naysayers who have posted above. It IS a melodrmatic movie of cliched twenty-something characters going through the stereotypical self discovery... but it it just so damn spot on.

This movie has a great mix of real emotion. It goes from humorous to serious and back again with such great ease.

Braff put a lot of effort into this movie, and it shows. Watching it now, it seem's like he made the movie just for me.

That is a great thing.