Garden State

Have any of you seen this movie, or are you planning on it?

I just saw it last night and I can't get it out of my head. I'm still undecided on whether or not it was a good/great movie, but there sure as hell were some high points. Shades of The Graduate. I feel like talking about it, but won't if no one is interested.

 

Oh what the hell. The movie was written/directed/starred a guy from the TV show Scrubs.

The first 20 mins or so were ok... kinda of oddball cyncism and quirkiness which made me laugh. The X party with the smoking hot barely legals was cool too.

But the movie grabbed me when Natalie Portman (!) put her headphones on the main character ("Largeman") and said "you have to listen to this song, it will change your life". It was a cool Shins tune, but that isn't the point. I loved that she introduced herself to him with music. Good music, no less.

The soundtrack was killer, and was handpicked for each scene. It worked really damn well, which is one thing I look for. They dusted off an old Simon & Garfunkel tune, which sounded great, and found one of the few upbeat Nick Drake tunes I've ever heard (love Nick Drake though), but the rest of the soundtrack was current, eclectic stuff.

Portman was awesome too. Stole just about every scene she was in and acted better than any movie she's made as an adult. She's as cute and charismatic as Elisha Cuthbert is hot.

There were a couple of laugh at loud moments in the movie, but it was mostly sad/serious, and somewhat slow paced. The characters (stoner, young millionaire, etc) were all kinda quirky, and some of the scenes were completely over the top. Still, I liked it, I think. It had a nice message, even if it ended on a hollywood cliche.

 

I guess I'll keep replying to my own thread.

I got the last copy of the soundtrack at Border's today.

What a mellow, golden trip. Love it.



Favorite tracks so far:

The Shins - New Slang. I was indifferent at first, but it gets better with each listen. Five listens and it's already into the realm of "damned good".

Cary Brothers - Blue Eyes. My wife really digs this one. Kinda radio freindly, but a good straight ahead song. I think these guys are a country act, but you'd hardly know it.

Iron Wine - Such Great Heights. (I think I like the original version by The Postal Service that they used in the trailer much better)

Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line. It's a little repetitive, but I like female leads with soft voices, and the electronica beat is head trippy.

Frou Frou - Let Go. The closing scene track. Almost annoyingly catchy. To me, the singer sounds like Dido trying to sing a Billy Corgan/Smashing Pumpkins song.

Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy In New York. Sublime. I don't know what else to say. What a great fucking song. It makes up for Art Garfunkel's ridiculous hairstyle.

Not eligible for mention - Don't Panic by Coldplay. It's a favorite of mine, but I've heard it so many times before.

 

Best thing about the shins, they are from NM and are made up of members of SoC. Still, they are nowhere near as good as SoC.

 

I may try to catch this in when I'm in New York next week. I'm a big fan of Scrubs and Zach Braff. Oh yeah, and Natalie Portman is way underrated, so I'm stoked to see her in this.

 

You meant "stroked" to see her. She creams my Twinkie.

I've read good reviews about this movie and how Zach did really well with this endeavor. It's on my must-see list.

 

Muff. Stuff like that makes me wanna have some lesbo friends. I am with ya in the NP appreciation society. I'm not quite pitching a tent for her, but I could watch her for hours on end.

:xyzthumbs It's been the better part of two days since I saw it, and it's still lingering in my mind. So either it's good, or just memorable. See it. You too QCH.

By the way, i got edumacated last night on a coupla things: first "cary borthers" is one guy. LA based singer/songwriter. Doh! Second, Braff has had a blog about making and releasing the movie since back when he started the project and it was called "Large's Ark". I thumbed through it. He seems really approachable, but I bet his head will swell if the movie is a big success. He said that they had to press more copies of the soundtrack 'cause they did a small amount that sold out immediately.

 

I found out last night that the soundtrack has been the #1 seller (all music CDs) on Amazon.com for the past few days, with no end in sight.

I think I'm going to burn my copy and add the two songs Braff left off: The Postal Service's version of Such Great Heights, and a song called Orange Sky by some guy who's name I forget.

The movie is #7 in per screen dollars, at $4.6k. It;s only made $6.5M so far, but it's only on 627 screens nationwide. The interesting thing is that the weekly box office take is increasing and it's adding screens, not losing them. It could be a sleeper hit. It might make as much as $30M, which would be enormous for such a small budget production.

 

Ok, finally saw this on Friday. Portman whipped ass. Yeah, she's hot, but more importantly, especially for this role, she's just so damned cute. The headphones, the helmet, the hampster funeral. The quirky dialogue is exactly what I expected, and I really wansn't dissapointed with the movie, except for the weak ending. Great fucking characters, though.

 

saw it tonight. i think it epitomizes some current thing going right now, but i just don't know what it is. the soundtrack was perfect. i don't think it was a monumental movie, but i think it's going to be the movie people think of when they think back to the thing that was going on now.

portman is hot.

braff looks like a cross between "michael bolton" (from office space) and ray romano.