Alongside "Best Pictures that didn't deserve to win," it's movies of the consciously quirky variety that seem designed for the backlash. So here to join Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, welcome Garden State, another dramedy (!) that served as Zac Braff's feature debut as a writer and director. Upon first release, then, Garden State - which tells the melancholic tale of a man who returns to his hometown for his mother's funeral only to find love - was hailed as unique and interesting film - to bring it up nowadays is surely the best way to get somebody to say "pretentious." For every teenager who grew up lavishing praise upon Garden State because it "really got" them, there's another two or three (or five) teenagers who couldn't believe that somebody would want to watch it inside of Transformers But is Garden State really the pretentiousness hogwash that we were all later led to believe? Not really. It's actually a fine, uplifting meditation on loneliness and love, boosted by an excellent soundtrack and a top-form Natalie Portman. Many feel that the backlash simply came on because Garden State's fans grew up and could not longer relate to it.
