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i'm not sure that i agree that this film is steeped in pure pretention, but i will say that this film feels more self-aware than green's first effort. but that's not to say that it is disgenious.

while dealing with a romantic relationship backs green into a paint-by-numbers plot (boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl reconcile), i think that green nails some of the most hurtful and destructive moments in a relationship. although dealing with complex emotions begs some degree of prentention, i still found the film to be honest. some may find a line like "if anyone smiles at me every again, i'm going to freak out" pretentious, i get a chuckle out of it. i think that line nails the desperation of heartbreak more any amount of sulking.

from what i've read of malick, green's landscape shots are straight out of malick-land. nevertheless, they are truly effective. using the landscape and surroundings to personify the characters' inner conflicts is way better than any voice over or half-assed dialogue.

still, i will agree with the self-awareness of the film. it seem like everyone has some unique story of innocence gone wrong - be it a lady bug collection or fishing accident. However, it hardly affected my enjoyment of the film, but it did come across as less solid and more hollow than george washington.

on that mixed-message note, green is becoming one of my favorite up-and-coming filmmakers, can't wait to see the rest of his work.

I loved this movie. The dialogue is occasionally too stylized, too quirky, for its own good, but on the whole Green's writing works quite well here -- his characters capture the awkwardness and clumsiness of real people quite well, even if their language and the things they do don't always seem like things real people would do or say.

It's also very easy to toss out Malick comparisons, but to me Green's treatment of the small rural setting with its industrial trappings was much more reminiscent of Twin Peaks. There were shots and sequences that would have fit quite nicely in that show's opening credits montage.

Well, I am biased but I love this movie as well...I actually met my wife because she found a glowing review I wrote of this film on the IMDb (more of a love letter to Zooey D.), saw I lived in the same city, and emailed me.

Of course, this always disappoints people when we say how we met, they ask what the movie was, and discover that it was not Titanic.

Nice story. It's hard to imagine a better romantic movie to meet over.

sevenarts wrote:It's also very easy to toss out Malick comparisons, but to me Green's treatment of the small rural setting with its industrial trappings was much more reminiscent of Twin Peaks. There were shots and sequences that would have fit quite nicely in that show's opening credits montage.

Perhaps it's a bit too obvious, but the montage in the middle of the film (when Deschanel goes to work at the factory) is straight, and I mean straight, out of Koyaanisqatsi. I would guess Green was channeling Reggio more than Lynch.