Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Garden State (2004) - Braff's hugely overrated deadweight debut

5/31/2020

Garden State (2004) - Braff's hugely overrated deadweight debut

♥

+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

Three stars wearing trash bags screaming on top of an abandoned locomotive make up this quizzical poster for Zach Braff's Garden State

A young man returns home to his mother's funeral. His father also acts as his psychiatrist, who has kept him on anti-depressants ever since he was involved in his mother's accident that left her in a wheelchair. But now he meets a lovely girl, and everything changes.

Garden State is written and directed by debuting Zach Braff (Scrubs (2001-10)), who also stars in it as protagonist Andrew.
The fundamentally interesting story of the medicating father is what attracts about Garden State, and Ian Holm (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)) is a scoop for the film as Andrew's father. But Braff in the lead shows no promises as a dramatic actor here, and his character never grabs our interest, perhaps because he is so painfully suppressed and wimpy at the same time, across from Natalie Portman (My Blueberry Nights (2007)) as the film's excitable Manic Pixie Dream Girl-type male fantasy stock character.
Garden State is overly stuffed with 'mood-setting' hit songs, which doesn't keep it from deflating like a turgid piece of cutesy indie pastry puff. In fact Garden State is at its most aggravating when it is semi-sophisticated.

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.5 mil. $
Box office: 35.8 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 14.32 times its cost)
[Garden State premiered 16 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place from April - May 2003 in New Jersey, Los Angeles, California and in New York. The film opened #30 to a 201k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #11 and in 813 theaters (different weeks), grossing 26.7 mil. $ (74.6 % of the gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK and France, each with 2 mil. $ (5.6 %). The film won 1/2 Independent Spirit award nominations, a Grammy and 1/2 National Board of Review nominations, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 3 notches higher than this one. Braff returned with 3 TV and video projects before his theatrical return, Wish I Was Here (2014). As an actor he returned with a voice performance in Chicken Little (2005) and 3 TV and video titles prior to his physical theatrical return in The Last Kiss (2006); Peter Sarsgaard (The Sound of Silence (2019)) in Kinsey (2004); Portman in True (2004, short) and theatrically in Closer (2004); and Holm in The Day After Tomorrow (2004). Garden State is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.44/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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5/31/2020

Garden State (2004) - Braff's hugely overrated deadweight debut

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