Garden State

So this is not a new movie off my Netflix list, and I actually own this one. But because it is the most important movie I have seen in a very long time, I believe it deserves some comments.

I think a lot of filmmakers enter Hollywood like fresh politicians entering D.C. Full of innovative ideas and hopeful ambition, they feel like they can take on the world. Eventually, the money and corruption wear them down to the point that they find their muse sleeping with a valet. Zach Braff's Garden State is exactly we should embrace the unknown writers and directors and recognize them for their uniquely soulful works. The movie industry wonders why everyone's stopped going to the theater. Its because the theaters play shit like unnecessarily remade Dukes of Hazzard or wholy godawful Catwoman. I cannot even tell you how bad Catwoman was. Good God. But I digress...

Garden State is one of those movies where you are either going to relate to it or not. I've talked to people who say the movie changed their lives, when other people shrug their shoulders and give an unenthusiastic "it was okay". I fall into the first group. This first timer's film is about waking up in your late twenties realizing you've become numb to a life you don't recognize. The plot takes you on the search for Large's Ark and becomes sentimental without putting you in a diabetic coma. The romance between Sam and Largeman is refreshingly innocent and pure, but not over the top. You find yourself rooting for the lamenting hero as he discovers love for the first time, and feel his pain as he faces what his new future means. Everyone is going to take something different away from this film, but I think hope is a big part of its message.

If you haven't seen this movie, you really should. You might like it. You might not. But see it all the same.