There goes the bandwagon

I'm not usually the last one at the party, but finally got to see Garden State this weekend, and took a luxurious, too- short soak in that rare movie experience - my expectations were exceeded. A post-film coffee klatch revealed numerous comparisons to excellent angst-of-youth films the group could recall, especially Say Anything (excellent music, slacker friends, use of rain), although comapring Natalie Portman to Ione Sky (who? Exactly) is hardly fair. Zach Braff, not a traditionally handsome guy, really grows on one, and he and Portman have chemistry that leaps off the screen and into your stomach where the butterflies hang out, waiting for inspiration.