Garden State

Gotta post this before it loses momentum. To Do: Tam edit, Add links.

Who-knows actor Zach Braff and over saturated Ms. Portman pull off a movie on the same plane as Lost in Translation but pulls more date-movie points. It's wonderfully absent of any sort of obvious movie setups and cliches. There's one strong tie-in, and it's subtle and just smooth enough tosay "Yup, the movie credits'll roll soon..." There's a lot of Punch Drunk Love in it too, but not nearly as odd-ball.

Soundtrack to read by. Smooth and 3AM groovy.

If your into art gallery movies, you'll have plenty of time to appreciate intentionally striking visuals.

Brace yourself for calico character types. The dude is has a quiet half-gape stance like Ray Romano, smells like what might have been a young Benico del Toro. Is she 17 or 23 Portman starts off as the cute but you-say-too-way-much chatty apologetic chick who later mellows into a fallable, lovable, be-my-wife but what will she look like after 3 kids type.

O yeah, betcha can't find Bilbo.

In other news, Natalie Merchant has covered Cat Steven's Peace Train. I think I like it better, even though the geo-political timing is rather annoying.