Who would ever say this? One fun, but slight movie does not a voice make. On top of that "Want a soundtrack that hipsters will buy? Braff picked the tasteful underground hits that are slathered all over Garden State and The Last Kiss. "

He by no means found this music on his own. He, like many people in LA, listen to KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. And he took songs from that and put them in his movie. I am not kidding, every song in that movie I had heard in the prior year on this program. So really, Nic Hardcourt found the music. And last kiss doesn't looks retarded. What a quandry. Which amazingly hot chick do I choose?

You know who the voice of my generation is? Crazymonk.

I can see thinking Zach Braff (and Garden State) is overrated, but hating him seems a bit over the top. Although that link is worth following just for the thing on YouTube where Natalie Portman introduces Braff to the wonders of Nelly.

I think this article was awesome. Thank you for
bringing it to my attention crazymonk.

Obviously, part of the issue is that Zach Braff has been
getting a lot of exposure in the media recently,
and I believe it was Entertainment Weekly that
refered to him in some way as "the voice of
his generation."

He does not seem to mind that though and seems to be getting a little haughty based on the quotations from
him I have read.

I think Scrubs is moderately funny and I thought
Garden State was pretty mediocre. So I think
an assessment that he is "the voice of his generation" is pretty ridiculous. Also-- his new movie sounds incredibly lame and this article only confirms my suspicion of that.

Yes, New York Anthony, you are correct. Crazymonk is the voice of our generation.

pretty good. this sentence from the article describes perfectly why i was so shockingly underwhelmed by Garden State:
"In the film, he piles on quirky details—a disembodied red gas pump hanging from a car, a guy in a suit of armor, a framed diploma on the ceiling—to keep viewers from scrutinizing his shallow characters and clichéd cultural observations."

jesus christ, this is exactly the kind of media-driven claptrap that makes people dislike things they might otherwise find to be perfectly fine. no one is the "voice of a generation." period. there are like, at least 100,000 people in the world, and that's like, a lot. "scrubs" is great, and very funny, and zach braff is a talented comedian and not so bad a writer/director. but some shitty magazine (that once hired dara resnick) says he's the "voice of a generation," and now we must hate him.

ps. the gas pump and the suit of armor and the diploma on the ceiling weren't "quirks." they were jokes. we all like jokes, don't we? for christing out loud, if there were no jokes in the movie, it wouldn't be a comedy.

and please note that the sarcasm and irritation in the above sentence is not aimed at flea, it's aimed at the quote. anyone is perfectly welcome to be underwhelmed by that movie, and there were a lot of "forced" quirks. but those examples were not such.

better zach than paris.

I must say that I loved the Levin article...its rare that a film critic out-does my disdain for popular culture (though curiously I have no objection to Braff as yet. If his indie head gets too big for his slim emo shoulders I'll have to reevaluate him, though.) Anyway, I have something of an underdeveloped theory about proclamations such as "the voice of his generation" --in short they are always a few years off. Like I said, this is far from the most rigorous idea I will present to this blog, but, if you remember the movies that became cult classics of our generation, weren't they most often dealing with characters a few years older than we were at the time? All those great 80s teen movies really hit home to most of my friends when we were, say, eight years old. The emotional impact of a youth-oriented movie sometimes seems to have less to do with empathy for the characters than the frisson of taking your cultural cue of how to behave, how to feel, how to be so goddamned-angstfilled-tragicallyhip-andcomplex-andgetthegirl/boy, etc. Wasn't "our" generation really informed by shit like Molly Ringwald, Ferris Bueller, Beverly Hills 90210, etc, all depicting people older than us? A good "voice of a generation" movie might really be a preview into your coming coolness once you can drive and smoke and fuck and all that. So might a movie like Garden State's popularity really be fueled by a highschool/early college demographic rather than the mid-twenty somethings it depicts? That is how it felt to me anyway. Actually being a disaffected mid-twenty something I wanted to punch someone in the face after that movie. BUT-I always ask the college kids I teach to write their favorite movie on the index card with their contact info (it makes a good initial point of conversation, and helps me learn their names). Garden State comes up with some surprising regularity, from 18,19,20 year olds. I teach all years but to my recollection only freshmen and sophmores have listed it as their all-time favorite. Some of these kids, I should point out, have been relatively hip, cosmopolitan, intelligent and even film majors. Believe me, some kids have listed movies that make Garden State look like fucking Citizen Kane.
I digress. The YouTube clip is awesome. And speaking of YouTube I have to ask about the "Angry Bill Clinton" clip being touted on Drudge...it comes from Fox news and is billed as him being out of control angry...but I think that the clip has such effect because the audio is out of sync with the feed, making him come off as demented. Is this just a crappy symptom of youtube, or a foxnews conspiracy, or is Bubbha really flying off the handle? I smell a rat.

I like how the youtube clip says "Bill Clinton freaks out". Wow, our definition of "freak out" sure is broad. He didn't seem very angry at all. If you want to see anger, watch Bush anytime someone questions one of his idiotic ideas. He can barly contain himself.

i like things.

I liked Garden State (although less-so upon rewatching). I guess someone can punch me in the face if they want.

Jbg, I think you have a sentimental attachment to Garden State or simply enjoyed watching it, but at least you seem willing to admit the movie has some faults-- as most movies do. I appreciate your attitude.

Liam-- I think your assessment is spot-on. Brilliant, sir. Brilliant.

Funny I read this article before seeing it linked on Crazymonk and was even thinking of telling CM about it. Instead I will tell you about the Citgo sign shit, which is linked everywhere.

Now back on topic. I love Garden State. Yeah it is slight, but it's fun, I mean the kid did paralyze his mom.

As to the "voice of his generation" comment: I went to see Chuck Klosterman give a reading last night and he spoke about a blurb that was actually in his book jacket. Apparently someone from People said that he was the new Hunter S. Thompson. And this quote has upset a lot of Klosterman bashers. Klosteman contends that nobody, not even the People writer who wrote it, believes he is the new HST. Rather this is some silly quip that a guy assigned to write a review came up with. Does the writer at EW believe ZB is the voice of the generation?

As far a the voice of generation goes shouldn't it be a rather mediocre/generic one if it speaks for the whole generation.

Just beause he copied Nic Harcourt doesn't take away from the fact that Braff picked the soundtrack.

Speaking of NYA's two hot girl quandary: I really like NBC's The Office use of actual weird or ugly looking characters. Granted they are not as unattractive as their British counterparts, but at least they are closer to reality. Supposedly on the French version the young office workers are really hot.

I won't even dignigy that Citgo sign crap with a link.

Wow CM you sound angry. Now while I think the flap against the sign is akin to the whole freedom fries thing, I do think it is odd that an advertisement has taken such landmark significance. I guess that is not the only example. Supposedly people enjoy Coca-Cola more for the memories that it evokes rather than for the taste. I imagine many of these memories are tied with advertising. Enough thread highjacking.

massachusettsans hate bush as much as they hate the yankees, if not more. so the citgo sign STAYS.

Hell, let's replace all gas stations with American flags as well. That will show them.

let's replace all our babies with dead arab babies, too.

whoa.

-joey lawrence