# Garden State
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garden-state/264787
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 17, 2004, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garden-state/264787 "2004-09-17T03:06:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2004, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garden-state/264787/1 "2004-09-17T03:06:58Z")
I know everyone has their own tastes in movies, but for me, this is one of the best movies I have seen in several months. The characters are quirky and helplessly tragic, but very realistic, unlike Hollywood drama robots. Check it out, you will laugh, and perhaps even cry. 3 1/2 stars.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garden-state/264787/2 "2004-09-17T03:12:23Z")
Yet this movie will probably remain on my must see list until…it comes out on DVD.
A week off from work…a stack of movie passes…and yet…I haven’t entered the Garden State Theatre.
What do you (or other dopers) find so compelling?
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garden-state/264787/3 "2004-09-17T03:29:35Z")
The [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=272290&highlight=garden+state) I started on it about a month or so ago. Not suggesting you abandon this one to post in it, mind… only that it’s there if you want to read it.
Garden State is easily my most favorite movie of the year and possibly of all time. The story may be a bit pedestrian but between the direction, casting, acting, and even music, the film came alive for me in a way no other film has. Of course, it helped that I dentified so much with Largeman… I’ve never been medicated but I’ve fought depression in the past and I can fully understand how he felt when he finally broke through his ennui to find someone that cares for him.
I need to see it again. Three times isn’t enough.
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### Author:  [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garden-state/264787/4 "2004-09-17T03:50:19Z")
Whoops, sorry, I guess I didn’t search hard enough for an old thread. I have my A-list of movies, this is the first one I have added to my list since Pieces of April.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garden-state/264787/5 "2004-09-28T05:50:54Z")
> [@Zach Braff](#):
>
> You can officially pre-order the [Garden State DVD](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JNC2/foxsearchligh-20/) on [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com). It’s scheduled to come out on 12/28. But I’m trying to get in moved up a little bit, so we’ll see. It’s got tons of really cool extras, commentary from me, Nat, the cinematographer, the production designer and the editor. It’s got about 1/2 hours worth of cut out scenes and bloopers and a behind the scenes documentary. I’m a DVD junkie, so it’s a DVD designed by a DVD junkie for DVD junkies.
[http://gardenstate.typepad.com/zach\_braffs\_garden\_state\_/2004/09/too\_mad\_to\_lean.html](http://gardenstate.typepad.com/zach_braffs_garden_state_/2004/09/too_mad_to_lean.html)
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garden-state/264787/6 "2004-09-28T15:03:31Z")
I saw Garden State and was, well, underwhelmed.
It seems like another movie done in the fashion of The Graduate or Harold and Maude (which were great movies) but have been overdone lately.
These movies would be the likes of American Beauty, Lost In Translation, etc. etc.
Too many scenes of close ups of the main characters staring off into space wide eyed and slack jawed while some Simon and Garfunkel tune plays in the background. Everyone is depressed, searching for meaning in their life, wandering among strange characters.
I’ve seen it all before. It’s been done before. I need something more original.