Just Plain Awful

Rating: 1/10 (8 May 2005)

This film will make you cry. Not because of any real emotional content, but because this is the state of independent film-making that succeeds financially. Every move in the film is so calculated, clichéd, and self-consciously "quirky" that it made want to walk out of the theatre. Zach Braff adds Bad Writer and Bad Director to Bad Actor, and drags the rest of the cast down with him in this saccharine wasteland. Really, there are no new or good ideas here. Every scene seems to have been examined for any element which was not as cutesy and "quirky" as it could be. If the scene was found to convey anything real or meaningful, it was swiftly replaced with something to please its target crowd of would-be hipsters and late-adopters who describe themselves as fans of the independent because thats the section in Sam Goody where they find the new Modest Mouse CD. This is not cinema. This is an 11th grade short story written by the kid who complains about not fitting in, but really takes pride in it. It shows an artistic voice more influenced by appearances than by something to say or show. Not to mention it looks awful. If you want to see a real endless abyss, watch this.