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[Originally written 10/18/20]
Anyway, that’s not the point of this week’s entry. As you might have guessed from the above subheading, I’m going to be talking about two highly similar movies - Garden State, starring Zach Braff and Natalie Portman versus Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. It astounds me that I don’t think I’ve written about GS before, even though it is something like sixteen years old by now (and I think ET is about that same age too, but I only just watched it a day or two ago.) The similarities/parallels don’t stop there - perhaps you’ve heard of a trope called Follow the Leader? Well it’s in full effect here. I don’t want to give a rundown or recap of either movies, but I will talk about the most salient points I found most relatable from both movies, which of course, like any movie, have their own ups and downs.
Garden State Back in the day, I thought this movie applied in particular to a certain friend of mine and his girlfriend at the time, now-ex. He was Andrew Largeman (Large); she was his Sam. Meanwhile, our mutual friend Alex was Mark and I was Jesse - it makes much more sense in context of the movie, but it’s one of those things you had to be there for to truly understand.
Since my latest rewatch maybe a week or two ago, I’ve started to notice that I have more in common with Large than I thought. Even though I’ve adored this movie for so long (I can honestly say it’s in my top 5) it never really hit me how relatable it is, and I think that’s where the real strength of the film is - to say nothing of its brilliantly apropos soundtrack which won a few awards. Large relies on a vast amount of pills to get through his day - for the longest time I didn’t think I needed to be medicated, but now that I am, it is a literal lifesaver.
Large also has a complicated relationship with his parents based on an accidental tragedy in his childhood. One mishap leads to nine years of separation and estrangement - well it looks like that on the surface because Large has been away from home (New Jersey) for almost a decade but this has shaped his life the entire time - just watch as he comes out of his medication-induced shell. What the movie doesn’t show (and I think it should have) is the backlash of abruptly quitting the drugs - from what I know now, even missing a day or two can lead to unpleasant side effects and anything longer than that spirals into early-stage withdrawal which is just as bad as it sounds. You know what it’s like to detox from booze or cigarettes? Yeah.
I should also point out that the dynamic between the two sets of leads raises the question of this: “what exactly is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl?” Sam is definitely one, but you could argue that she is patient zero. Claire (from Elizabethtown) was the inspiration for the trope, according to Nathan Rabin of the AV Club. If you’re not familiar with the term (and you should hold onto your keyboards over at TVTropes) but essentially the MPDG is a female character who is idealized and only seen from a shallow perspective, less a character and more of a plot device to help the struggling protagonist (typically a young and shy, awkward/anxious/depressed white boy/man) break out of his funk and reach a more enlightened level in their life, for better or for worse.
If this sounds familiar to you then you’re probably a John Green fan - deconstructing the MPDG was his intent with Looking for Alaska (if the book is TL;DR, watch the show!) but he uses the same conventions in basically all of his books up until The Fault in Our Stars - where Augustus Waters is a Manic Pixie Dream Boy - and I guess Turtles All the Way Down? That one didn’t stick with me quite as well as the older stuff. Maybe JG lost his touch.
All in all, my affection for Garden State has only grown deeper over the years. Granted, it’s reached that stage where it’s a “watch once a year” kind of thing but I’m surprised the disc I have from 2004 is still in relatively good condition. It means more to me now than when I was a teenager - and let me tell you why!
In March/April of 2011, I was reaching the end of my undergraduate career at UMBC. The thought of looming graduation was weighing heavily on my mind. What was next? What did I have to look forward to? It’s not like I had taken the initiative to hunt down a job after I got my degree. Up until I was almost done with my BA, I had known where the next phase of my life would take me - elementary school led to middle school, which in turn led to high school. The end of high school presented a similar turning point - but at least I knew I had gotten into both UMBC and Towson and it was up to me where I would go. This situation ultimately culminated in the creation of Looking Forward (Rain) a short story. The two main characters, a pair of twins named Marc and Missy, would go on to play key roles in the full novel, also called Looking Forward. Essentially, it became what I call a “seed story” where the tale grows in the telling from one simple idea to something a bit more imaginative and substantial.
This is not to say that Marc and Missy are the main characters by themselves - no there is a full cohort. The other core cast members include Henry Lei, Zoe Keiko, and Eduardo “Edo” Ferrin. The most relevant part, however, is the relationship dynamic between Henry and his first true love - a girl named River Watson who quite literally comes floating into his life on one fateful Black Friday. I think I’ll leave it there. Want to know more? Then you’ll just have to watch this space.
Okay so I'm aware I didn't talk about Elizabethtown very much. Honestly, I don't really have much to say about it. i think that's a sign that it didn't strike a chord with me. Want to talk about it? Leave a comment here or hit me up through my contact page!
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