The only living boy in New Jersey

Garden State

(2004)

When this was new, I absolutely loved it until the shout into the infinite abyss, after which I thought it lost some direction and some power. Now I'm not quite sure why I thought that: this time I liked it a little less all the way along--which is not to say I didn't like it a lot, just not in an unguarded first-love kind of way--but I didn't experience the letdown after the abyss yelp (which itself remains one of the wonderful moments of the millennium). And I was certainly right in taking this as post-Attack of the Clones evidence that Natalie Portman could still act.

So when's Zach Branff gonna quit wasting time on this little TV show of his and write and direct his 2nd theatrical feature?