But the characters *were* the story. It was all internal. (Which is not a popular mode of storytelling, I'm aware.)

Yeah, I guess I just can't get into it that way. Do you feel the same way about Garden State ? Or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ? Because people compared both of them to Lost in Translation, which made me all a-feared, but I really liked the former and loved the latter.

I *do* feel the same way about Garden State, which I love as much as LiT. Eternal Sunshine was purely Meh for me.

I *do* feel the same way about Garden State, which I love as much as LiT. Eternal Sunshine was purely Meh for me.

I'm the opposite of Steph here. Hated the hell out of Garden State, but I think Eternal Sunshine is one of the best movies of the new millenium. I liked LiT quite a bit, but think that it's a little overrated (which is to say, I thought it was a lovely little puff of a flick). I think both LiT and Eternal Sunshine made excellent choices about how to develop the characters (and how the actors embodied them), but Eternal Sunshine actually went so far as to provide external representations of memory and loss of real love, with all its imperfections and near-misses, which is so goddamn poignant and beautiful that it breaks my heart to even think on it.

I've come to think it's my baggage that kept me from enjoying "Eternal Sunshine". As somebody with brain damage, having my brain...scrubbed, just like horrified me *too much* beyond the intent of the film. It got into some things that really scare me, as it turns out, but they weren't thinking of folks like me when they made it, obviously.

Lost in Translation so perfectly captured a certain mood: the intensity of a temporary friendship, the perfection of those few stolen days, the certainty of loss, all wrapped up in both the wonder and the overwhelmingness of being adrift in a foreign country. It felt like it was made for me.

Eternal Sunshine hit me just as hard, for different reasons, and I can't be any more rational about than I can be rational about Lost in Translation. On the other hand, I liked Garden State a lot, but it never grabbed me the way the other two did, partly because I thought Natalie Portman's character was way more annoying than charming.

What did you think of Before Sunset, Tep? Because I thought it was one of the most perfect movies I'd ever seen -- it was just so pure, nothing but two people walking and talking for 80 minutes in real time.

LiT is a movie that hit me so hard I can hardly bear to hear people say anything bad about it. ESotSM wasn't quite that bad, but I love it all the same.

(I liked Garden State very much, but I have such affection for its existance as Zach Braff's first "real" movie that any reaction I may have had for it on its own terms is lost.)

I've been listening to the commentary on the Scrubs DVDs, and it's so weird to hear the writers/producers talking about how the reason they cast Zach is because they wanted a total nobody who would be in over his head trying to carry a television show. But he was such a superstar in college -- one of those people you just know is going to be a huge success, because he's That Good -- that thinking of casting him because of his anonymity isn't something my brain will properly process.

ETA: Corwood gets to blurb my book if it ever comes out, being as pulp with miles of brains is my artistic heart's desire.

(Bogey) Anytime, sweetheart. (/Bogey)

It got into some things that really scare me, as it turns out, but they weren't thinking of folks like me when they made it, obviously.

I think that horror was pretty much front-and-center in the movie. It's interesting how both Eternal Sunshine and Gondry's prior movie Human Nature have horrific mad science front and central to the plot, but neither really dwells on this.

What did you think of Before Sunset, Tep? Because I thought it was one of the most perfect movies I'd ever seen -- it was just so pure, nothing but two people walking and talking for 80 minutes in real time.

I actually haven't seen it (or Before Sunrise, either, actually).

LiT is a movie that hit me so hard I can hardly bear to hear people say anything bad about it.

Heh. Me, too.

Although I think LiT has a serious strong vie for my Top Movie Ever position, I actually don't mind at all when people don't like it. I completely see where they are coming from. I think because the reasons I love it are so personal (which is why they're so strong), I can easily see somebody who isn't me not having anywhere close to the same experience with it. Which is okay.

I mean, even Shakespeare's fairly pulpy in the context of his time.

Absolutely. One of the many things I love about Shakespeare. Or the equally pulpy and melodramatic Dickens. It is no impediment to great art! We like it juicy.

I actually haven't seen it (or Before Sunrise, either, actually).

Watch 'em in order. I loved the hell out of Before Sunrise when it came out (I was their age then, too), but found them sort of annoying on rewatch. And Before Sunset was so incredible in that context, as if we all grew up and things are messier now, but the little beautiful moments are that much more precious. Yowza.