In absentia no more

I've been remiss in my entries lately, for a variety of reasons with which I won't bother to bore you.

One thing I have done, in my absence, is watch a bunch of movies (some of which I would never have deigned to pay $2 for, let alone $9). So, here is the first of about 10 reviews:

Garden State – I’m not sure whether Zach Braff would take umbrage at this assessment, but I found his directorial debut (if you don’t count his short “Lionel on a Sunday”, or 2 episodes of “Scrubs”) to be “cute”, albeit in the best sense of the word, but is that enough?

The press has compared this film to “The Graduate”, and for several valid reasons, including Braff’s musical parallelism (or is it channeling?) via Simon & Garfunkel. This is as close to today’s generation’s cinematic “state of the union” as any film produced in the past few years. For that alone, it deserves lofty accolades.

I know Mike Nichols, though, and Mr. Braff is no Mike Nichols.

The trouble begins when you try to critique the work extant its contextual sensibilities. Is this a great character piece? While Natalie Portman does give a luminous portrayal, the characters, as a whole, are rather hesitantly drawn: short of caricature, but not quite fully fleshed. The saving grace lies in the fact that the author imbues every moment with a sincerity that betrays his innocence and naiveté, while protecting him from overt affectation and narcissism.

Is this a great socio-political work? No, although any portrait of a society – or segment thereof – truthfully rendered, can indirectly become a socio-political expression of its time, so let’s see where it stands (and IF it stands) 10 years from now.

Is this an interesting film? Most of the time. It was created by an obviously intelligent and witty person, whose earnest desire to express the views and characters that reside in his imagination led him to cash in his markers, be they from “Scrubs” or well-connected Columbia High School alumni.

This is worth watching, though, to better comprehend the confusion of our young adults - still slackers, but with a little more of a sense of humor perhaps. It’s a good movie, not great, but definitely good…and that goes a long way when compared to most of the stuff on offer today.