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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57
Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
71
Jerichow
58
Julia
74
Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
42
Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
50
Management
57
Merry Gentleman, The
66
Moon
35
New York
62
Not Forgotten
xx
Offshore
78
O'Horten
64
Outrage
40
Paris 36
54
Pontypool
71
Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
65
Sex Positive
70
Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
82
Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
28
Surveillance
42
Tennessee
63
Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
80
Tokyo Sonata
63
Tokyo!
70
Tony Manero
74
Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
83
Tyson
83
U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Garden State
Fox Searchlight Pictures / Miramax Films
MPAA RATING: R for language, drug use and a scene of sexuality
Starring
Zach Braff,
Natalie Portman,
Peter Sarsgaard,
Ian Holm,
Method Man,
and
Jean Smart
Andrew Largeman (Braff) shuffled through life in a lithium-induced coma until his mother's death inspired a vacation from the pills to see what might happen. When he travels from L.A. back to his hometown, he meets Sam (Portman), a girl who is everything he isn't. Her warmth and fearlessness give him the courage to open his heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Zach Braff
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Zach Braff
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: December 28, 2004
Video: December 28, 2004
Theatrical: July 28, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
119 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic), 2004 Sundance Film Festival
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Premiere
Peter Debruge
Garden State gets it. Not since "The Graduate" has a movie nailed the beautiful terror of standing on the brink of adulthood with such satisfying precision.
89
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
There's even a Simon and Garfunkel tune on the soundtrack, which makes Braff's character seem like the only living boy in New Jersey, which, of course, he may well be. L'chaim!
88
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Garden State is filled with characters you long to know more about, in situations to which almost anyone can relate. And that's as near a can't-miss movie formula as one can get.
80
Empire
Olly Richards
A great debut from a promising talent.
80
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
The movie never finds a consistent tone -- the humor is dynamically offbeat, the dramatic moments a bit canned -- but Braff's affection for his misfit characters and skeptical take on how people sell themselves short in America make this the truest generational statement I've seen since "Donnie Darko."
80
Dallas Observer
Robert Wilonsky
Garden State charms with ease and moves with grace; it's warm but never mushy, languorous but never groggy, rueful but never despondent. It's like a perfect pop song--that thing that makes you smile and tear up at the same time.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Garden State illuminates a young man's overdue coming of age with unexpected depth and grace.
80
The Hollywood Reporter
Duane Byrge
Writer/director Zach Braff has threaded a powerful and intelligent personal story through a genre all too rare today – romantic comedy.
75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
It's a hilarious and heartfelt ode to twentysomething angst. Braff has himself a winner.
75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Though unlikely to have the lasting quality of "The Graduate," it feels a bit like that seminal film for today's generation.
75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Sometimes veers off into preciosity. But it offers something rare in the bond between Andrew and Sam.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Certainly Garden State is a very American specimen of debut indie form, its loose, goof-about scenes of comic melancholy reinforced with the glue of quirkiness over cracks in the narrative development.
75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Braff makes a striking directorial debut while leading a superb ensemble cast.
75
Chicago Tribune
Allison Benedikt
Though too dear at times, overly sentimental in its conclusion and sporadically overreaching to be the voice of a generation, it's otherwise emotionally spot-on as it follows Andrew back to his Garden State hometown for his mother's funeral.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
The best performances are those of Portman and the resourceful Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass) as Mark.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This is not a perfect movie; it meanders and ambles and makes puzzling detours. But it's smart and unconventional, with a good eye for the perfect This is not a perfect movie; it meanders and ambles and makes puzzling detours. But it's smart and unconventional, with a good eye for the perfect detail.
75
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
A fanciful little indie brimming with emo music and curious little vignettes, marks a self-conscious but very promising debut for "Scrubs" star Zach Braff.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Zach Braff, who shot the film near his hometown of South Orange, N.J., directed this drama with subtle flair and wrote a star part that perfectly fit his acting range.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
There's no denying the intelligence at work here, or Braff's skill at weaving off-the-wall humor and sight gags into a story that, at heart, is profoundly sad.
70
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Braff is bright and has a quick ear for vernacular dialogue, and he's caught the look and the sound of his blitzed, prematurely disillusioned generation, which has had to live with more lack of definition than most.
70
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Garden State features some wonderful performances, chief among them an engaging, even courageous turn from Natalie Portman.
70
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
An edgy quasi-comedy, it's very funny in places, touching in others. There is a little unevenness. But for a directorial debut, it's amazingly assured.
70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Small, smart, off-kilter comedy.
70
Village Voice
Ed Park
Braff's naive romanticism is also lovely proof of the film's innocent heart.
70
Film Threat
Tim Merrill
When Braff keeps the tears and the kookiness in check, he takes us into some unusual, interesting areas of the human psyche. And makes us laugh a good deal while he's at it.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
While most movies would sink under the weight of such eccentricity, pretentiousness and earnestness, Garden State is so full of wit and the genuine heart of characters that you can't help but care about what happens to them.
67
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Zach Braff has come up with a charming, funny, melancholy ode to twentysomething angst.
63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
As long as you go into Garden State with reasonable expectations, its capacity to disappoint will be limited.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Braff's deadpan performance and dry reactions are deft, and his ability to shape a scene to a punctuation point is impressive, but he's all over the place as a writer.
63
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
A standard issue, first-movie navel-gaze whose cobwebs Braff meticulously sweeps away by directing the bejesus out of it. The photography makes loveliness out of the film's dank, hung-over atmosphere; the camerawork and editing lend the movie a luscious daydreaminess.
60
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Braff, and Garden State, give it the old college try, and at least some, if not all, of the sparks catch. Even if the movie doesn't quite take off, it doesn't leave you feeling stranded, either.
60
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Although Zach Braff's promising writing-directing debut is a bit affected, few actors with behind-the-camera aspirations succeed as well as the Scrubs star does with this melancholy romantic comedy.
60
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Feels too piecemeal and ultimately inconsequential.
60
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Garden State coasts on this considerable charm until it hits a brick wall in its final segments.
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
What the movie lacks -- a big lack, not a fatal lack -- is a compelling character at its center. Everyone in Garden State is fun, skewed, strange and singular.
40
Slate
David Edelstein
Say this for actors: Too self-centered to be embarrassed, they can be existential heroes of a (moronic) sort.
40
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Mr. Braff's idea of self-discovery is my idea of narcissism.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 146 User Votes
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