Review of Garden State (2004) by Paulb. — 29 Aug 2005
The photography is great -- and then that's it. This film made me throw-up in my mouth a little bit. Braff plays a thinly-veiled version of himself as a yong man -- misunderstood and emotionally hobbled by his parents, surrounded in his home town by idiots and philistines, and stuck in a going-nowhere waiter job when all he really wants to do is make intersting movies.
Over the course of the film Braff breaks free from these emotional shackles and learns how to, yes FEEL, finally coming to realize what we (he) knew all along: yes, I AM a brilliant, sympathetic, and truly unique human being.
The cliches in the film come fast and furious. Imagine Braff and Portman standing in the rain and screaming into an abyss -- into a LITERAL abyss. Or Portman prefacing an oh-so-obvious indie-pop single by The Shins with the phrase, "It will change your life.
" (Imagine the IPod of a stoned liberal arts college student on shuffle and youll easily guess the majority of the film's soundtrack.) Navel-gazing, narcissistic, self-involved -- I could go on.
I have been bored by movies, I have been offended by movies, I have found movies stupid, but rarely do I truly hate a film. I HATED this film.
This review of Garden State (2004) was written by Paulb. on 29 Aug 2005.
Garden State has generally received very positive reviews.
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