13 Most Pretentious Movies Of All Time

7. Garden State

Tree Of Life
Fox Searchlight

The first entry on this list that we dub the 'Deep Teenager Years'.

"Oh, man. This guy doesn't have his life figured out yet, neither do I! Despite being sixteen and living with my parents. This film is, like, so deep you know?"

Except it isn't at all. Zach Braff tries to have his protagonist broach some deep subjects. Like death, and god and just, y'know, life in general. The big mystery that surrounds us all Except the whole thing reeks of a first year philosophy class. In fact, Garden State's script reads exactly like something you would've written when you were sixteen and hidden under your bed... which Zach Braff then found and for some reason committed to the screen.

Garden State checks all the boxes: manic pixie dream girl with absolutely no discernible personality? Check. Screaming in the rain as some kind of weird therapy? Check. A soundtrack populated almost exclusively by a bunch of god awful indie bands, mostly The Shins? Check. Perpetuating the dangerous attitude that you don't need medication if you're mentally ill? Check.

Garden State's got it all, baby!

Contributor

Johnny sat by the fire, idly swirling his brandy, flicking through the pages of War and Peace, wondering whether it was pretentious to write his bio in the third person.