Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas

Braingasm
Patrick Fugit is Bickford Schmeckler, a loner who lives in the basement of a busy frat house, writing down his "cool ideas" in a large metal book. Olivia Wilde is the beautiful (and smart) girl who throws his world into a tailspin by stealing it from his room. When further mischief gets his book published and distributed around campus, Bickford must come to terms with his own behavior, and decide whether to live his ideas or keep them locked away in his book.

Of course, the hot chick and nerd hook up. He won't stop acting like an emo kid and she dumps him. They get back together, kiss kiss, make-up garbage. And to think, all he had to do was write a "sex poem".

This film is for the most part, funny and light-hearted. Director Scott Lew packs a lot of typical college humor in (party mishaps, D&D geeks who hang out in a comic shop - one of which is John Cho from Harold & Kumar!, etc.), but it all works -- I even found the bits with Matthew Lillard as a campus...

A Different Kind of College Comedy
A nerdy college outcast , Bickford Shmeckler (Patrick Fugit of Almost Famous fame) has written a book of ideas about the nature of existence that would make the average persons head spin. While pondering an ending to his book, a sorority girl, Sarah (Olivia Wilde) "borrows" the book and is blown away by it's insights. She gives the book to a friend, who gives to another person and another until Bickford's writings are being passed all around campus.

As he hunts down his prized possession he has the joy of being introduced to a few strange characters that have come into contact with the book. Matthew Lillard is a crazy homeless guy who believes in extra-terrestrial beings who control his thoughts and thinks Bickford can get them to leave. John Cho leads an AD&D group that drops everything to spread the gospel of the book (a la Mao's little red book). It turns out everyone who reads the book either has a mental orgasm or feels enlightened by the thoughts on life, the universe...

A Sensible Comedy
I didn't expect much from this movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. Some classify it as a sex comedy, but at its heart it really isn't any such thing. Yes, there are a couple of semi-nude scenes, but they really aren't central to the story. Instead, this is a story about the anxiety of losing one's diary. In this case, it isn't a social life diary, but an intellectual life diary. All kinds of comical situations arise when Bickford's precious book is stolen by a young vixen, then lost by her boyfriend. It is a pleasant surprise to watch a movie where one's intellect, as expressed in 'the book,' is admired by all who come into contact with this unusual diary. There is a bit of coarse language, but not as much as is usual in these type of comedies. Also, the laughs do not arise out of slapstick drivel, but out of the unexpected logical outcome of its setup.

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