Zach Braff shows some powerful movie-making in his writing/directing debut

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 2004)

Having seen a preview showing in San Diego / Hillcrest this past week, and then listening to Zach Braff talk after the showing and answering many probing questions, I am even more impressed with his first time directing/writing/movie acting debut. I expect many future gems from Zach over the years.
As he talked about this film after the viewing, I could see how much he's put in to it, and how in real life he is a lot like the character he plays on Scrubs. He mentioned how painful it was to cut at least 45 minutes from the film, which should make for a very good future DVD with the deleted scenes intact.
He told a very funny story about how a mutual friend knew of this masturbating dog, and they just had to find a way to work him in to the movie. There's actually a couple of scenes with dogs in the movie. Apparently the camerman stood with the dog all day to get the shot, and the dog, a bit nervous for the cameras, was not doing his thing on cue as usual.
Camped in a house, camera training on the dog, waiting, the rest of the crew was shooting a scene outside. Out comes the cameraman finally after all day in the house with the dog, thumbs up, smoking a cigarette - "Got the shot man !".
This movie hits on many levels - good acting, even better script, and tight camera work. And all on a 2 1/2 million dollar budget shot in 45 days. Superb job Zach. Everyone should see this film.