Garden State

[Finn]

Ha! I can't wait till this thing comes out. Everyone will stop talking about and be very disappointed.

[Ghostboy]

Admin edit: couple a spoilers

Well, I wasn't disappointed, seeing as how I went in ready to pick it apart (honestly), almost wanting it to suck, because I feel that I fall in love with movies too easily and was determined to remain critical with this one; but it didn't work, because even critically speaking, I really admire it. Sure, it's got all of these gorgeous, perfectly symmetrical show-off shots with cranes and wide angle lenses, but it's also got tons of technical problems like continuity glitches and bad blocking and 180-degree breaks, but between these two extremes I saw a filmmaker who isn't the second coming of either Anderson or Sofia Coppola, but someone who definitely has talent and who is worth paying attention to. And while a lot of the dialogue is very sentimental and obvious, the triad of young performers delivering it are all so talented that they make it work, and sometimes even make it very meaningful. Braff in particular, who was at the screening and is such a completely different person in real life that he was barely recognizable (I've never seen Scrubs), and also Portman, who hasn't given a non-marginal performance this good since Leon (seriously). She's completely wonderful here, and her scene at the end on the airport staircase is stunning. Her character is vivacious and goofy, but not, as JB proposed, like Clementine in Eternal Sunshine. Also, she does not die of cancer, nor is she terminally ill. The movie never comes close to stooping that low, although it does have a running through the airport scene that I could have lived without. There was a lot I could have lived without, actually, but I liked the movie a whole lot and goddamn it I'm just not cynical enough to dismiss it because its heart is so clearly on its sleeve or because the director couldn't help but show off with some really cool shots.

[Raikus]

And a voice of reason enters the fray.

Never thought I'd see one of those around here.

[modage]

Zach Braff on Garden State
Source: Edward Douglas Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Most will know Zach Braff as Dr. John "J.D." Dorian on the hit NBC sitcom Scrubs, but pretty soon, they may know him as one of the brightest new independent writers and director, as he takes on multiple roles for his new movie Garden State, starring Natalie Portman. In the movie, Braff plays Andrew Largeman, a third rate Hollywood actor who has to return home to Jersey when his mother suddenly dies, forcing him to deal with a past he thought he left behind.

ComingSoon.net spoke to the talented and very funny star about what he went through to get his dream project made.

CS!: How hard was it to be taken seriously when you walked in and said you wanted to direct this feature film, since you had only done short films and music videos beforehand?
Braff: Well it was harder than I thought. I had envisioned in my head that being on "Scrubs" and having Natalie Portman attached to star and Danny Devito producing, that it would be a cinch. I wasn't asking for that much money. I couldn't find anyone that wanted to take the risk, because the screenplay is not a traditional three-act structure. It's not a movie a studio would ever generate, and as I learned it was not a movie a studio would ever produce, even as I got Peter [Sarsgaard] and Ian [Holm]. People would say, "Okay, if you do this to it." They were freaked out by things like introducing a character that doesn't come back. Well, that's life! I go home for four days and I meet somebody. They're not going to teach me a lesson by the time I leave. They wanted a lot of things. I would leave a meeting and think that they basically want me to make a big studio movie, but it's not that. Eventually, I found a young gentlemen who was willing to take a risk, and that's how I got the movie made. When the studios saw it done, they were very into it. It's what you call in the studio system, "execution dependent". It's a good term you have to learn if you ever try to get a movie made, which means "we want to see it when someone else has taken the risk and it's done."

CS!: Was it difficult to direct yourself in scenes that you were also acting in?
Braff: It was tricky. There were times when I'd be acting with my right eye and watching a camera crane with my left eye. A lot of times it was helpful, because a lot of the scenes are one on two or three people. I felt, in a certain way that, I was a director undercover as an actor, and that I could steer a scene how I wanted it to go, by what I was giving the other actors. Normally a director would have to cut and say, "You need to give him a little more of this". I didn't have to do any of that. The main communication a director has in a film is talking to the lead actor, and a lot of time is eaten up trying to get the right thing. For me, that was all in my head. In some ways, I think it sped things up and enabled us to shoot the movie in twenty-five days, which was pretty obscene.

CS!: Supposedly you wrote this role for Natalie Portman. What was it about her that made you want her for this role?
Braff: For me, there's a very rare thing that you find in certain actors or actresses, and she has it. There's a lot of pretty actresses in Hollywood, and there's a handful of them who are good actresses, and then there's the occasional one that has that weird thing that everyone can't describe. She walks in a room and you can't take your eyes off here. It's not just the beauty. It's something else and you can't put your finger on it. She has that, and I always saw that and wondered how lucky I would be if I one day got to work with her in any capacity, let alone have her starring in my first film. I've just been such a huge fan of hers since she was a kid.

CS!: Did you realize that you had both done Shakespeare and you had both worked with Woody Allen?
Braff: No, I knew we went to the same theatre camp in Lock Sheldrake, New York, and I knew that she was a nice Jewish girl from the East Coast. I didn't really know anything about her until we met and had lunch together.

CS!: In the movie, Natalie Portman's character says, "You're that guy on TV!" Do you get that a lot now?
Braff: Yeah, I'm the "Scrubs guy"; no one knows my name. (laughter) Donald Faison used to always laugh, because we'd be walking down the street and people would just yell out, "Clueless!" (more laughter) He was like, "I'm really looking forward to a time in my life when people stop yelling out the word "clueless", so now we're 'Scrubs guys!"


CS!: Did you come up with some of the movie's sight gags while on the set or did you have all of them written out beforehand?
Braff: Everything pretty much had to be storyboarded. I had to take as many things as possible out of the directing mix on set, so I storyboarded every single frame of the movie. That's not to say occasionally, we'd be like, this is cool, let's try that, but most of those things were completely planned in the script.

CS!: For an independent movie you have a lot of producers on this. How did so many producers get involved and were you able to keep your original vision for the movie?
Braff: Everyone wanted to produce it; no one wanted to pay for it. (laughter) The first thing that happened is that Jersey Films got attached. They really liked the movie, but they don't finance films. They mostly do big movies, but they loved the script, and they were curious about doing something smaller, so that brought on the bulk of the producers, because they have three executives at the company and then the two hands-on producers who would also be on-set. Then we got the financiers, Gary and Dan Halsted who were with Camelot Pictures. There were a lot of cooks, but I have to say that they were really great in giving me my space. There are so many nightmare scenarios where everyone is so freaked about a first time filmmaker that they're all over him. They gave me final cut on the movie, which for a first-time director is pretty obscene.

CS!: How did your experience on Scrubs help the way you approached the comedy?
Braff: The comedy in "Scrubs", at times, is a lot broader and I didn't want to have any broad comedy. Occasionally on "Scrubs" and my favorite kind of comedy is the really dry stuff, like The Office, and I love that stuff. I learned a lot about that. Largeman is essentially the straight man in the movie, which I don't do in "Scrubs". I'm by no means the straight man in "Scrubs". The biggest thing I got from "Scrubs" is the pace in which we shoot. It's a great boot camp for making indie films, because we shoot an episode in five days. It's a tremendous amount of work and we shoot and move on, shoot and move on. That's the way we had to approach shooting this movie. Also on Scrubs, we have a different director every week, so it was also a continuing education in film school for me to work with a different director, and say, "I like the way this person directs. That's something I'm going to take that with me. That's something I don't like, so I'm never going to do that to my actors." It was a unique opportunity for an aspiring director to have, to essentially be directed by a different director every week for three years.

CS!: How did the Sundance Film Festival help the movie and how did the movie end up at both Fox Searchlight and Miramax?
Braff: It's a long story, but the short version is we went there, premiered it, and the immediate response was really positive. It was fun for us, because all these people that had passed on it were now really excited about it. Offers started coming in, and it quickly got down to three companies. Two of them were particularly passionate about it, and in an unprecedented move, Harvey Weinstein [head of Miramax] called Peter Rice [at Fox Searchlight] and suggested they buy it together. We were a bit freaked out by what that meant. When the dust settled, it was the dream scenario, because it was two of the most powerful and respected distribution companies polling their resources.

CS!: The soundtrack for the movie is also pretty amazing. Why did you choose to highlight the Shins as one of the bands that actually gets mentioned by name in the movie?
Braff: I think they are the greatest band in the world. I love them, and I don't get tired of their music. I started getting freaked out when I started falling in love with music that no one was listening to. One of my favorite bands in the world is a band called Remy Zero, and they couldn't sell albums and I don't even think they're together anymore. I have one of their songs in the movie, when Natalie is tap dancing in front of the fireplace. The Shins are a band I got turned onto. I basically just scored the movie with my favorite music. It's really cool to know that people are now responding to the music the way they are on the Internet. People are talking about the soundtrack and are so psyched about when it's coming out. It makes me really happy, since it will be a great opportunity for all these bands that are having trouble getting exposure to get heard, including people that aren't even signed yet. There are three people on the soundtrack that aren't even signed. That always freaks me out more. I go to a concert and see someone as the Second Coming and they can't even get signed to a label.

CS!: Was it hard getting rights to some of the music, especially the bigger acts like Coldplay?
Braff: Simon and Garfunkel and Coldplay were the ones where we were like, "Why are we kidding ourselves?" In fact, when the label for Simon and Garfunkel first came back, we all had a good laugh at how much money they were asking for. We could make another movie for that amount! I wrote them a letter and I appealed to Paul Simon, and they were very generous. When they saw the scene it was going to be in, they didn't hesitate to say we can have it. I edited it and put all of my dream stuff in, and I only got turned down by one person. Little by little, Simon and Garfunkel, Coldplay, Nick Drake's estate--all these bands, one by one--said "yes".

CS!: Speaking of Simon and Garfunkel, are a lot of older people comparing it to The Graduate?
Braff: I don't like The Graduate comparison, just because that puts so much pressure on the movie. It's not fair. It's like seeing a toddler being good at basketball and assuming he's going to be the next Michael Jordan. Don't do that to him! I love that movie. It's a brilliant movie and I don't think my movie is that good, but I do think that what The Graduate did was sort of take the temperature for a generation and say that this is the state of union for what it felt like to be a 20-something at that time. What I was aspired to do was for somebody to relate to it in a similar way.


CS!: To what extent did you imagine Garden State to be a generational statement?
Braff: I didn't really think of it like that. I think if I set out to make a generational statement, I would have gotten really pretentious and self-important, and I hate those movies. I just thought that there has to be people my age who are going through this feeling I have right now, people who feel lost and feel depressed or lonely and are not really sure why. I wrote a short story about a lonely guy who really is due for a new chapter to open in his life, and I decided that I wasn't going to pay attention to story structure or all the rules that are so wonderfully spoofed in the movie Adaptation. I'm just going to write a story and I didn't really know where it was going. I knew I had ideas of things I wanted to do, but when I first started writing, I was like "Where would it go next?" I tried to keep it really honest and I think people responded to it, because there are a lot of people out there who are going through the same thing. The cool thing that I didn't expect is that people of all different ages are responding. Every generation thinks that they're going through this for the first time. It's really a movie about transition, about looking for contentment and dreaming of finding it. I think every human being can relate to that on some level.

Zach Braff's directorial debut, Garden State, opens in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday and then everywhere else in August.

[Film Student]

This was a wonderful movie.  It's definitely not for everyone (people who are picking on the lack of structure and "uneven tone"), but its an extremely emotional, very honest story that made me want to hug the screen while I was watching.  The feeling I got watching it was very similar to what I felt while watching "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Lost in Translation."   Like those films, there's a certain emotional wavelength you have to be on to appreciate it...

And the music kicks ass.

[Finn]

He really is a pretentious film school asshole....

Just Kidding

[El Duderino]

i enjoyed this film quite a bit. the soundtrack is amazing.

[Finn]

agreed on the soundtrack

[MacGuffin]

Out of his scrubs
Zach Braff hangs up his stethoscope to direct 'Garden State.'
Source: Los Angeles Times


Zach Braff on the set of “Garden State.” “I was amazed at how much freedom I was given on the film,” he says. “Once we got the financing, they basically just let me go.”

There is a particularly telling scene early in "Garden State" that captures the strange world between obscurity and celebrity to which young Hollywood hopefuls often find themselves relegated. The film's writer-director, Zach Braff, who also stars as Andrew Largeman, a doped-up struggling actor working at a Vietnamese restaurant in L.A., knows the moment well — he lived it not that long ago.

An actor since adolescence (he was in high school when he had a featured part in Woody Allen's 1993 "Manhattan Murder Mystery"), he moved to Los Angeles after college and in 2000 had a role in the romantic comedy "The Broken Hearts Club." Here, let Braff tell the rest.

"I was working at Le Coloniel on Beverly before it closed and my film 'The Broken Hearts Club' was showing at the Sunset 5 and people would come to the restaurant after seeing the movie and I'd wait on them. They'd say, 'I saw your movie.' 'Oh, cool.' They'd say, 'We really liked it,' and I'd say, 'Oh thank you, thank you very much, and let me tell you about our specials. We have the cod ...' "

It was a humbling experience for Braff, but it made good material for his film. He started working on the script in the four-month period in 2000 after he was cast as J.D. on "Scrubs," where he is the star, comic foil and emotional heart of the NBC hit comedy.

Those lean times also helped prepare Braff for the indie film world. While "Scrubs" attracts more than 10 million viewers per week, making it one of NBC's top comedies, and although his script became a hot property — particularly after Natalie Portman was attached as his costar — he still couldn't assemble the $4-million budget for the film. It was only when he whittled the cost down to $2.5 million that investor Gary Gilbert finally just wrote the check himself, ensuring Braff the final cut he wanted.

"In TV, there are so many chefs in the kitchen, between the network and the studios," Braff noted. "I was amazed at how much freedom I was given on the film. Once we got the financing, they basically just let me go.

"I remember the first day of shooting, and the executive producer saw the dailies.... He said to me, 'You know, you can shoot more film. You can shoot close-ups.' "

When it began to generate buzz at the Sundance Film Festival early this year, Fox Searchlight and Miramax quickly bought the rights to distribute it (Searchlight is handling it in the U.S.). Since the film hit theaters Wednesday, it has grossed $267,000 in nine locations, fine for an art-house opening but barely registering against No. 1-ranked "The Village," with an estimated $50.8 million its first weekend.

Labor of love

"Garden State" is a dark comedy — emphasis on the dark — about the struggles young adults face as they enter their 20s. As Braff explains it, he wanted to make his feature writing and directing debut with something that was intensely personal for him.

"If my first film was something I had no relation to, I think it would be too hard to be as passionate and thus harder to deal with every single door in town getting closed in my face," Braff says.

"Garden State" tracks four days in the life of Largeman, a young actor who returns to his New Jersey home for the first time in a decade, for his mother's funeral and for his own rites of self-evaluation.

He reconnects with some aimless friends — particularly Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), now a grave-digger; confronts his distant, controlling psychiatrist father (Ian Holm); and meets quirky, uninhibited Samantha (Portman), who has all the spontaneity Large (as he's called) lacks. Key details about his life, and his nearly lifelong reliance on Lithium, emerge along the way.

And that's pretty much it. The tall, engaging 29-year-old, who studied writing and directing as well as acting at Northwestern University, purposely avoided the three-act structure that shows up in nearly every studio film. Instead, he opted for a more improvisational feel.

"Garden State" had just the sensibility Portman was looking for. Like Braff, she wanted a role that was markedly different from her signature part, that of Padmé Amidala in the current "Star Wars" trilogy.

"I read the script and it was like no other part I'd had the opportunity to play," Portman said, "someone so uninhibited and unreserved and lets all her flaws shine. That was really exciting to do, and liberating. I'm a pretty inhibited person myself. I try not to be, but years of adolescence train you to be embarrassed about everything that's weird about you.... A lot of what this movie's about is how can you be different and find your unique place in the world."

Like Braff, some of the best-known film directors first found careers in TV sitcoms. Ron Howard was Richie Cunningham before he directed big-budget films such as "Apollo 13" and "A Beautiful Mind." Penny Marshall segued from "Laverne & Shirley" to steering "Big" and "A League of Their Own." Rob Reiner went from "All in the Family" to directing credits that include "When Harry Met Sally" and "A Few Good Men," among others. Danny DeVito appeared fated to a career as a character actor after "Taxi," then went on to direct "War of the Roses" and executive produce "Pulp Fiction."

Said DeVito: "If you have the desire, the passion for making movies and really apply yourself and get chops by hanging around, learning, studying, have something to offer," you have a chance. DeVito's Jersey Films also produced "Garden State."

"It's not such a difficult transition," he said, "if you put your mind to it and get a little luck."

It might still seem an odd transition to move from a broad, physical comedy like "Scrubs" to a small, personal story like "Garden State." But, if anything, Braff found "Scrubs" a master class.

"Let's not talk about sitcoms; let's talk about a single-camera half-hour show that's shot like a film and in fact is more like a low-budget indie film because you shoot so fast," says Braff. "I think of it as film grad school: We have a different director every week, we shoot a short film in five days, and each week I get to see how a different director works and directs people."

Bill Lawrence, who created and produces "Scrubs," had no inkling his star was an aspiring filmmaker when he first came in to audition.

"It was funny, because we knew him as an actor," said Lawrence, who jokingly refers to Braff as "my new young diva." "So it was very easy to be very condescending about his writing when we learned about it. Then I saw the movie, along with some of the writers, and we were prepared for our supportive 'great try' speech.

"I'm annoyed it was so good; it's very upsetting."

Down to earth

Lawrence noted that he and the others on the "Scrubs" set made sure that Braff wouldn't get a swelled head after making his directorial debut.

"When he got back from selling the movie at Sundance and we were sure he was feeling like a young star, we made sure the first episode he shot he'd be in a clown costume, and was shot in the face with seltzer water."

The episode was real, but Lawrence is joking about Braff's ego. People who know Braff well talk about his mix of strong self-confidence and general lack of self-importance.

"That's why I think the 'film by' credit is sort of silly," Braff said, before his costar interrupted him.

"No, come on. If any film is 'by' anyone, this is it," Portman said, adding, "You did absolutely everything."

"My point is I didn't take a 'film by' credit because it feels to me this is a film by 150 people," Braff continued. "I like this collaborative thing you do together."

Now it's back to the collaborative but frenetic world of network TV, as Braff gets set to begin the fourth season of "Scrubs." He's also going to turn up on the big screen next year in a very un-"Garden State" film, as the title voice in Disney's animated "Chicken Little."

"How cool is that?" Portman asks, before answering the question herself. "It's so cool."

As for his next writing-directing project, Braff said he's in no hurry. "I'm lucky I have 'Scrubs,' because I want to do a lot more acting. I think I'll wait until I find something I'm as passionate about before I make my next film."

[Film Student]

He really is a pretentious film school asshole....

Just Kidding

Ha ha... yeah I guess so... although your "dogville" avatar ventures close to that territory as well.

[Sal]

I didnt enjoy this film the way I thought I would.  The trailer never got to me, and in fact turned me away.  I felt it was trying too hard to be on the same wavelength as Translation, which I read was a cited inspiration for Braff.  

I feel there are too many anomolies here to be forgiving towards the movie, despite my respect and admiration for Braff.  It's tough to do something like this and pull it off solidly at Sundance.  People bought it!  It's praise enough I think.  But at the end of the day, I have a duty to look at it with an unflinching eye.  Im glad people that like the movie have found something new since Translation to hold onto.  Im still waiting for mine..

[Film Student]

I felt it was trying too hard to be on the same wavelength as Translation, which I read was a cited inspiration for Braff.  

I'd like to see where you read that... Everything I've read thus far indicates that Braff was mainly riffing on The Graduate and Harold and Maude, which I think are far more apt comparisons than Lost in Translation...  It didn't really strike me as that similar to Translation (save the basic premise of twentysomethings shoegazing), although I think it will appeal to the same audience... I definitely left the theatre with a feeling similar to the one I had after Translation, but I still think it's a stretch.

[Ghostboy]

I've read at least one interview, and also heard him say in person, that Sofia Coppola was a big influence...I don't know if he mentioned LIT directly, though.

Conversely, Sofia Coppola has expressed great love for Harold And Maude.

[tpfkabi]

hopefully i will see this and Napoleon Dynamite at the Magnolia on Saturday.

do you think it will sell out, GB?

i've never been to the Magnolia, so i have no idea how many people it seats or if a lot of people go there.

[Ghostboy]

Napoleon Dynamite shouldn't. Garden State might depending on when you go to see it. If the Metallica documentary is still playing, you should see that too.  It's a completely awesome theater, you'll love it. Good place to spend an entire day.