Anyone who knows me well will tell you that my favourite all time movie is The Shawshank Redemption. Last night though, that title was almost knocked off it’s pedestal. After checking out the guide and realising that there was absolutely nothing on the box, and being in the mood to sit in front of the tv, my Wife and I decided to fetch a movie.
In the end we settled on The Grudge, which wasn’t anywhere near as good as I thought it would be, and another title called Garden State which was simply brilliant. Garden State was the story of a young bloke, who revisits his home town for his mother’s funeral, and during the visit meets a quirky girl (played by Natalie Portman) and falls in love. The movie itself is filled with many weird and wonderful characters, types you would expect to see in your average person’s social circle. From drug users, to geeks, the cast made for an interesting dynamic that gave the movie a good feel. It was a story about finding yourself, relationships and friendship. The best part was there were many aspects of the movie which reminded me of things I have been through in my own life, and also how Mellissa and I came together. The bit I liked most about the flick was that it was real, very real. Again, anyone who knows me well will tell you that I like real things, I’m very anti-fluff.
One thing that blew me away was that not only was the lead actor the main guy from Scrubs (Zach Braff), but this same person also wrote and directed the movie. Pretty good for a young bloke if you ask me.
After some thought, Shawshank is still on the top, but then it really is a different sort of movie. Garden State comes in a close second anyway. A brilliant flick, watch it… because I said so 
Disclaimer: My enthusiasm for this movie was in no way biased by my soft-spot for Natalie Portman.
Hey, nice to meet you. I’m sorry I said vagina just now. I didn’t know you were here.
Posted by Melly on June 13th, 2005 at 8:32 pmConsider me sold! I’ll have to watch that flick before too long.
Posted by Doug on June 13th, 2005 at 8:55 pmsold. good review josh, i’ll be having a look at that one in 48 hours, after all exams are done and the second state of origin game has been mopped up by the mighty maroons, their performance bolstered by the positive energy of my beer-fuelled shrieking and cheering.
(i think someone’s looking forward to the end of exams a little too much…?)
admission of guilt: my enthusiasm for this movie does have a lot to do with the mention of Zach Braff, who i think is all kinds of sexy, even if he is a little weedy.
hugs
ez
I still haven’t seen it but I want to! Sounds good, definitely will have to now. But Josh, what about “Napoleon Dynamite”?! All those dancing skills? Best movie. (Maybe not ‘best movie ever’ but one of them 
loved it, loved it, loved it.
nearly died falling in love with zach braff.
Posted by erica on June 28th, 2005 at 7:09 pmHey.
My favourite movie is Shawshank Redemption, and my 2nd favourite movie is Garden State…believe it or not. Great movies!
Anyway, that’s not really the reason I posted a comment on your blog thing. I actually came across a response that you posted on someone else’s blog (Just Thinking). The entry was entitled “Postmodern Christianity”. Your comment was something about it all being subjective. I guess I wanted to know what you meant by that.
I heard one definition as:
“Postmodern Christianity may be described as a Christian reaction to and assimilation of postmodernism. It emphasizes the otherness and incomprehensibility of God. Paying close attention to the age-old philosophical question of the relationship of faith and reason, Postmodern Christianity usually thinks of the Christian faith as in some way transcending human reason, rather than being unreasonable, illogical, or absurd–on the one hand–or merely logical, on the other hand.”
I think this is pretty accurate, (with possibly need for explanation however).
Wondering what you thought…
Posted by Sarah on July 9th, 2005 at 4:35 amHi Sarah,
Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond. I guess what I was getting at is that postmodernism generally opposes itself against absolute truth. This is something I don’t feel comfortable with at all. There is only one truth, and one way, and that way is Jesus Christ, and this is pretty absolute. Jesus said this himself. John 14:6. I’m not for this subjectivism that seems so rife today. I guess I’m not very much for superimposing postmodernism on christianity either.
While I agree that there are probably many elements of Christianity that “transend human reason”, I think Christ’s message was straighforward enough to understand without having to push it into the realm of the unknowable.
Does this make sense? Thanks for commenting.
Posted by Josh on July 26th, 2005 at 12:23 am
I want to see this now. I haven’t yet. I should, though.
Yay for posts from teh Josh
(That is supposed to say ‘teh’ not ‘the’. It’s a Libs thing [ask your lovely wifey])
Posted by Rebecca on June 13th, 2005 at 8:32 pm