NYP – This week’s Indie Date flick is Garden State (2004). You can’t go wrong with this movie. Honestly, just putting on the soundtrack and staring at the wall would probably win over most dates. Writer-Director-Star Zach Braff really nailed it. The arbitrary snob in me hates to give him credit. I think I’ve never been able to trust him since that CBS Schoolbreak special My Summer as a Girl (just what is he trying to pull now?), but he deserves it for this one.
Why You’re Watching: It’s somewhat funny and Natalie Portman plays Braff’s love interest, Sam. And she doesn’t stab a single person in the face.
Why You Know It’s Fiction: Natalie Portman plays Braff’s love interest, Sam. You know, just like the many so-quirky-it’s-attractive super-hot girls who are still totally attainable for the whiny everydude, living in your small hometown? They do so exist! Haven’t you ever seen Beautiful Girls (1996)? I forget, who was the inappropriately aged, unapologetically idiosyncratic and totally available hot girl in that completely plausible storyline? Batalie Bortman?
Why Your Date is Impressed: For some reason melancholy is even MORE sexy than nostalgia. It goes:
1. Melancholy
2. Justin Timberlake*
3. Nostalgia
4. Candles
*This list applies to all sexual orientations. The man brought sexy back. Sexy went away; it left. Sexy vacated the premises and Justin Timberlake hunted it down and dragged it back here. Using only his wits and falsetto.
Something Impressive to Say After the Film: How it reminded you of The Graduate (1967), another film about a melancholy man-boy undergoing an awakening to a wall-to-wall soundtrack of the music of his generation. It’s hard to compare the two movies and they both have their strengths. Ultimately, The Graduate is probably better due to the fact Dustin Hoffman never took any roles where he dressed in preposterously unflattering drag. Oh wait.
