Synopsis
Garden State (2004) is Zach Braff's indie dramedy, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Braff wrote it, directed it, and plays the lead. Andrew Largeman is a barely-working TV actor in Los Angeles, numbed by years on a fistful of prescriptions. When his mother dies, his estranged father calls him back to suburban New Jersey for the funeral.
Off his meds for the first time in ages, Andrew starts to actually feel things again. His old friends seem frozen in place. Then he meets Sam (Natalie Portman), a fast-talking, slightly chaotic girl with epilepsy and a habit of fibbing, and she pulls him out of the fog. Their awkward, tender romance unfolds while Andrew circles the hard conversation he owes his psychiatrist father (Ian Holm).
This was Braff's directing debut, funded partly by his Scrubs paychecks, with a hand-picked soundtrack that went on to win a Grammy. The film became a touchstone for 2000s independent cinema and still gets quoted today. Peter Sarsgaard and Jean Smart round out the cast. Stream Garden State (2004) online on iFILM.
Starring
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