Garden State

I would give Garden State a 9 out of 10. The only reason I'm not giving it a perfect 10 is b/c it had a slow start. Besides that this movie overwhelmingly surprised me with its directing and acting. Natatlie Portman did an amazing job playing Sam. She really worked the part. Zach Braff's directing debut is stunning. I had never heard of Braff except for his character on the TV show Scrubs. He also did an excellent job acting. There were so many surprising elements thrown out during the movie. Braff just kept piling one thing on top of the next to make the story more interesting as it rolled on. I was very pleased with Garden State!!!!!!!!!11

I grew up watching this movie in the 2000s, loved it then, and just recently re-watched it for the first time in many years. Definitely feels like a mid 2000s movie. Wow how times have changed. It's still a great movie, whose best scenes are mostly the ones with Peter Sarsgaard. I miss movies like this so much, sad that Hollywood doesn't seem to make them anymore, those introspective arthouse films that defined the teenhood of so many of us growing up in the 2000s.

I just recently got into listening to Hugo Kant's music, that kept reminding me of Garden State, so I had to revisit the movie, and it brought back so many memories of my life back then, what I wanted to do, and how life has just kind of drifted along these past several years.

I long for travel again.

First off, for anyone thinking about seeing this movie, go do it!! No matter what anyone has told you already about the film. I notice a lot of people writing that they didn't like Garden State and that's fine, I personally thought it was excellent. To me it was real life on film, and within that real life there are very different people. Unfortunately not everyone wants to see movies that remind them of reality, and I guess not everybodies reality is the same as mine. Even so Garden State is well worth the watching, if only to remind us that the comatose state most of us live in is only temporary, and the joy of a life well lived is forever.

This was almost the perfect movie. The acting was great, the direction was great, the script was brilliant, and the location shoots were perfect. Probably the most amazing thing about this movie was the screen stealing show stopping performance of Natalie Portman. She showed this brilliance in "Leon" aka "The Professional", and once again amazed with her talent. It contains different humour to your usual American movie and was a needed hit in the movie circles of 2004.

My only problem was a little part of the story that seemed out of place and not needed. This is not a spoiler, it is his friends wealth and invention. They just seemed unnecessary to me. This is a minor complaint and I eagerly anticipate Zach's next work. He could quite possibly end out being more famous behind the camera than in front of it.

I first heard about this film from The Shins. James Mercer mentioned this film in an interview and talked about how it raised awareness for the band. I decided to watch this movie only because of this, and I actually thought it was pretty sweet. I like the contrast between Andrew's junkie friends and Sam's innocent, loving family. You can really see how much the colors change from depressing browns and whites to warm reds and yellows. I think Zach Braff did a great job directing the film in that sense. Braff also did a good job playing Andrew. He really portrayed the numb mindlessness of Andrew, and really changed throughout the film. I like how we see Andrew go back to that numb mindless state when he is waiting on the plane after leaving Sam. It really goes to show how much he needs her. Overall, the film was very well made and the soundtrack is gold. I was elated when I heard an acoustic version of "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service playing at one point. I didn't know how versatile Natalie Portman was as an actress until watching this movie She played Sam very well and was one of the highlights for me.