E and I agreed: Garden State? Waaay overrated. Zach Braff does “earnest” very well, but he was so earnest (”Dad, how about we just try being who we are?”) that I think I sprained a muscle rolling my eyes.
Also, I am so over the “lonely guy with boring life is saved by adorably quirky girl” genre. (I think I’m the only person I know who wanted to smack Eternal Sunshine of the Pretentious Title upside the head.) Are there any movies that go in the other direction? Where a lonely woman with a boring life is saved by a quirky guy — and the woman is the focus of the movie, the movie isn’t about making fun of what a frigid bitch she is, and both characters are (at least meant to be) charming and not dicks?
We did love some of the visual gags, though — the wallpaper shirt that’s in the trailer, for instance, or the doctor who runs out of room for diplomas on his walls and has to attach one to the ceiling, or the hamster-tube palace that takes up Natalie Portman’s entire house. As E said, “There was a lot of good stuff in that movie, but none of it had anything to do with the movie.”
6 responses so far ↓
1 jfpbookworm // Apr 20, 2008 at 9:39 pm
The closest thing I can get is either Kate and Leopold or Benny and Joon, neither of which is quite the same thing.
As for Garden State, there’s a good post over at Pandagon about it, which links to a Slate review. One of the things they point out is how “load-bearing” the music is.
Then again, I can’t imagine Say Anything using Fishbone, so maybe I shouldn’t be complaining about that.
2 Doug Orleans // Apr 21, 2008 at 12:46 am
Juno is sort of “adorably quirky girl is saved by lonely guy with boring life”. But that’s probably not what you’re looking for.
Hmm, The Good Girl? Reality Bites? Pretty in Pink? Most Meg Ryan movies?
Taxi Driver? He’s quirky all right!
3 Doug Orleans // Apr 21, 2008 at 1:13 am
Ooh, Edward Scissorhands! And Heathers, sort of. And Pump Up the Volume. And, uhh, Peter Pan? I’ll stop now.
4 Sam // Apr 21, 2008 at 7:36 am
Jfp:
I haven’t seen Kate and Leopold, but in Benny and Joon they were both kookoopants. Which was fun in its own right, of course (and also annoying for similar reasons).
The Nelly clip in the Pandagon post is awesome!
5 Sam // Apr 21, 2008 at 7:40 am
Doug:
You’re totally right about Edward Scissorhands and Pump Up the Volume! And the Sleepless in Seattle Meg Ryan ouevre. In Reality Bites I would argue that Troy isn’t adorably quirky so much as an even more pathetic slacker than Winona’s character is, but still.
Is the lesson here that the 80s/early 90s were the era of the quirky guy and this is the era of the quirky chick? That does make me feel somewhat better, actually.
(Heh. Peter Pan. You’re totally right. But Peter’s mommy issues are so creepy in this context that I just can’t let it count!)
6 John Green: the “exclusive” “interview”* // Oct 20, 2008 at 2:07 pm
[...] term was coined by Nathan Rabin of The Onion AV Club to refer to… well, Natalie Portman in Garden State, basically. I’ve been calling that character the Magical Mystery Girl, but I gather that is [...]
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