September 23, 2006
braff is shit
I don't normally indulge in such piss takes but the hateful Zach Braff needs a smack down.
If Garden State is any indication, Braff's weaknesses as a director go beyond narcissism. In the film, he piles on quirky details—a disembodied red gas pump hanging from a car, a guy in a suit of armor, a framed diploma on the ceiling—to keep viewers from scrutinizing his shallow characters and clichéd cultural observations. This is the kind of movie the Zuckers would have made if they used gags in the service of drama rather than screwball comedy. Braff also uses pop songs as a cheat, an easy way to heighten the emotional impact of otherwise unremarkable moments. The music in Garden State is so load-bearing that the movie becomes ridiculous if you swap in different tunes—if you don't believe me, check this out.
more from slate.com here.
Posted by Morgan Meis at 05:43 PM | Permalink
Comments
I don't think I had any opinion, one way or the other, about Zach Braff before reading Josh Levin's article. Now, I know enough to know that I like Zach Braff a heck of a lot better than I like Josh Levin.
Posted by: Daryl McCullough | Sep 23, 2006 10:56:16 PM
All that article achieved was to make certain that I will go see Last Kiss. When hipster assholes like Levin start to hate someone, that someone is probably doing something right.
Posted by: Bill Hooker | Sep 23, 2006 11:54:02 PM
wah wah, boo hoo, Zach Braff is famous and made a cheesy romance...wah wah!
Oh my oh my are you an idiot Morgan for agreeing with this article. The movie Garden State was a quirky, off-beat, first attempt movie that a lot of people happened to like. Does that really bother you?
That idiot Levin just sounds like a whiner who had a script rejected or doesn't like Coldplay so he had to dissect the movie and not take it for what it is...a hokey but worthwile romance/comedy...just because it's not When Harry Met Sally or Pretty Woman and instead have juvenile "intellectualism" if it can even be called that is no reason to pretend like it's a drab waste of time to watch.
Get a life and don't be so jealous of Zach Braff, it just seems sad.
Posted by: david | Sep 24, 2006 12:14:55 PM
Levin seems to really resent Braff's claim to be the "voice" of his "generation." As if such a person could be, in any tangible or lasting way, such a thing. Coincidentally, I and a twentysomething friend were discussing generations recently, and when I claimed that she and I were in the same generation, because we were seperated only by ten years, she said that was too long. Apparently, generations are getting smaller, thanks to the feedback-spiral of popular culture. Biological generations no longer hold -- and in fact people who go to the same school can be in different generations now.
People seem to define themselves as belonging to the frame of reference that exists in popular culture when they hit their mid to late teens. Looking back on this "new generation" from my late thirties, I can see now that they're doing pretty much the same thing I did -- assuming that there was something unique and special about us. However, unlike previous generations, popular culture began to pander to this feeling, and even teen and young-adult angst became absorbed into the entertainment culture. When losing your mind and succumbing to drugs (see: Kurt Cobain) became just another mainstream lifestyle, the last exit door was sealed off.
Anyway, it's kind of funny to read about this sort of non-debate. Who speaks for twentysomethings now? How could you possibly know? There are no remaining outside reference points to measure against. Is Zach Braff the voice of his generation? Maybe you'd better ask the people who make those decisions -- they'll be able to tell you.
Posted by: T. Bailey | Sep 24, 2006 2:21:29 PM
Total waste of blog space.
Posted by: jean-paul buquet | Sep 24, 2006 9:05:27 PM
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