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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Garden State (2004) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020 (Updated Nov 26, 2020)

Garden State (2004)

2004 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

8.3

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Whole quirk, probably just a feature length "Try not to cringe" challenge if I really think about it - which as a cringe connoisseur I always have a soft spot for and you will too if that's your thing - but this taps into something buried deep in the psyche, with an almost primal force. Not only does this capture how fucking insufferable "Hey, how've you been?" small talk can be, but this does better than most movies before or after it in depicting that time in your life (late adolescence/early adulthood) where you were the center of your own moody universe and nothing else mattered - when you thought that's how life would be forever and you just Felt So Deeply™, for good and for ill. It has this authentic, free youthful energy about it but it also has a pretty mopey demeanor to it as well. Hence why I think this would work better if these characters were a bit younger, but I digress - it does that so impeccably well that all of its other blatant shortcomings are easy to forgive (for instance I still can't decide if Braff nailed the emotionally detached, despondent aura of his disillusioned lead character... or if he just sucked). It's so magnetic stylistically (soundtrack is stacked and the cinematography rules) I think it does its job more than capably. Pretty mesmerizingly walks a fine line between "What the fuck is this?" and "Hey who left this bowl of onions here?". Portman is the final boss Manic Pixie Dream Girl.