The Importance of Being Idle

Boom!

So our glorious leader went to a school in North London and was greeted with a defeaning chorus of "BOO!". Undeterred he went about his business and blah blah blah.
Apparently the kids weren't shouting "boo" at all though. According to the Labour press office, but were saying "Boom!", which is young persons vernacular for "hooray". Am I the only one who is reminded of the episode of the Simpsons where everybody boos Mr Burns, only to have Smithers claim they weren't booing at all, but were cheering "Boo-rns, Boo-rns"...
And so to Garden State.
(Yeah, that was one super-smooth invisible link there, no-one will EVER see the joins in that one)
I liked Garden State, I really did. But not to rapturous levels, just y'know, like. Appreciation even. After reading so much unswerving praise for it, I was left underwhelmed. Its a well told story, beautifully filmed, its quirky (although rarely funny - in fact the only time I laughed was the "Don't mention knights to Mark"/"Motherfucker!"/"No pun intended right?" exchange), and uplifting. I'm even willing to grant Zach Braff the possible credit that the reason the film feels less distant as it progresses is a deliberate attempt to mirror the way Large feels as he comes off his meds. Like I say, I admired its craft, perhaps rather more than I actually liked it.
One thing that did disappoint me though was the need for the characters to have 'drama'. Initially I felt great empathy with Large, with his feelings of distance and isolation. See, I feel like that too. I'm lost, alone, distanced from everyone and everything. I don't go home or see my family very often cos I'm a fuck-up, cos my life is a failure and I don't know how to deal with that, I don't know how to deal with them. So I assiduously avoid situations where I have to deal with any of it at all. I am, like him, waiting for something better to start, even though I know on an intellectual level that this is my life, and its ending one second at a time (to borrow a Tyler Durden-ism). So to start with I thought I understood Large and where he was coming from. I understood his need to be rescued, cos he just can't quite save himself. Then it all came unravelled and he had drama and there were reasons for why he's the way he is, and that just made me feel worse, cos I don't have reasons. I just am.
Maybe all that factors into my feelings of ambivalence towards the movie, I don't know. Regardless you should definitely check it out, especially if you don't have as many issues as I do.
I kinda feel like I should end on a happy, but I really can't think of one right now.

posted by BadMonkey @ 9:00 PM