i just finished watching one of my favorite movies: garden state. if you haven’t seen it, go out right now and rent it. while it occurred to me tonight that not every one can appreciate it the way i do, i nonetheless think that its definitely a movie that every one should see at least once. zack braf is brilliant and the sound track kicks ass.

have said all that, i feel the need to expound a bit on the notion that while the movie is brilliantly written, it is geared toward a certain demographic; people like me. more specifically, twenty-somethings with issues steming from low self-esteem and a stranged childhood. of course, i didn’t think my childhood was strained or abnormal at the time, but looking back, i have to believe that there was something about my childhood that has caused me to constantly doubt myself and my self-worth. i think without that experience or realization, while you can certainly enjoy garden state, i don’ think you can appreciate it in quite the same way. i don’t think you can relate to it.

along that same line of thought, i don’t you can relate to, or appreciate the ending without having some of that same self-doubt and lack of self-worth. without spoiling the movie for those of you that haven’t seen it, the ending is inspiring for people like me: those trouble twenty-somethings. the ‘moral of the story’ is that life is life. its good, great, lousy, frightening, fucked up, and very much worth living. bad things are going to happen, things are going to suck occasionally, and you’re probably going to fail from time to time. but things are also going to be good, fun, funny, happy, and interesting. the trick is, according to the movie, is to take the good with the bad. life is life and, for better or for worse, its worth living.

of course, the trick is to actualy live: to learn to take the good with the bad, the successes with the failures, the joy with the sorrow. unfortunately, despite the movie’s unique and brilliant lesson, this is something that, in 27 years, i have been unable to do. i guess i should put so much hope in a movie, no matter how inspiring it may be.