Watch Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas For Free

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Beautiful, moving film.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

When his journal of bright ideas is stolen, college freshman Bickford Schmeckler (Fugit) has to blanket the campus in order to locate it.Boring slow movie.You won't care one bit about anyone in the film.And you'll care less about the story.The only good thing is that it's only a hour and 15 minutes.But the other side of that is it feels like 10 hours.It's moronic and idiotic.In short, it's a monumental fail.Sort of like boiled meat.

Pot smoking is seen all through the film Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas and based on the generally pointless, rambling, and dull quality of the film it would seem that all the bongs and pot weren't set props but were equipment used to make the film.The storyline had to be conceived while stoned, that's if it was actually fully conceived before the film began shooting. It seems just as likely that shooting began and the story was made up one bong hit at a time.The gist of the story is that Bickford Shmeckler wrote a "book" which is so full of astounding concepts about life, the universe, and everything that it changes the lives of almost anyone who reads it. (Only the barest hint of these "cool ideas" are ever actually revealed to the audience.) Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas isn't really sure of what sort of film it's supposed to be. At times it seems it's a moronic party comedy, at times it tries to be serious. But whatever it tries it fails on all accounts.The characters are flat and lifeless, which doesn't seem to be the fault of the actors, it definitely feels like bad writing and direction.The attempts at humor (which include a scene where a handful of gay slurs are shared, one sight gag with a person in a wheelchair, and a mentally ill character included for the sake of zaniness) also fail. That includes the terrible idea to name the title character Bickford Shmeckler. (I laughed once during the film, 34 minutes into it. Shortly after that the only thing visually interesting in the film happens when...SPOILER ALERT...Bickford suddenly stabs a meat fork into a cantaloupe. It was also the film's only genuine moment.) What makes this film worth disliking is that there was a chance to explore some interesting ideas here such as people embracing pop theology/ideology in a manner that's just as mindless as their lives before exposure to the new ideas. Or people wanting to embrace trinkets such as hats and t-shirts as an expression of their beliefs. Or the discovery of a writer who doesn't want to be discovered and who definitely doesn't want to be the leader of some new quasi-religion based on his writing. In fact Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas so completely misses making a point (or even telling an interesting story) that this "story" could be turned into an entirely different, much better film.

I found the movie highly peculiar. I think it pretty much sums up what people search for in life. We search for answers. In the movie we see a guy who has found all the answers, and he "claims" to be happy with the discovery, but we see it very well that he is the most miserable person on earth. But he has those answers that blow everyones mind, so... he has to know something.And than he figures it all out! Major spoiler people: there is NO theory!... The only thing you can do in your life is to enjoy it. I think thats what the movie tries to tell us. That despite of finding out the answers to all questions about being, Bickford was in pain. And when he found out he doesn't have to find out anything: he was truly happy, for the first time. Sex is not the answer, its just symbolizing joy, unconditional happiness. So thats why the movie makes sense.I gave it an 8 because despite how great its philosophy was, it wasn't really.. "fun", and Im not saying I missed funny things from it. It just lacks the things I would want from a movie to make me give it a 9 or a 10. But I loved Patrick Fugit in it, and Olivia Wilde was also remarkable, she is adorably crazy, and Fran Kranz is one of my favorite actors so it was nice to see him in the movie.

The problem with "Bickford Schmeckler's Cool Ideas" is that it has no potential. It has good actors, who give good-enough performances, but they are wasted on dialogue and characters that are unrealistic, sparsely funny, and never connecting with the audience.There is just no reason to tell this story. Bickford Schmeckler loses the notebook he keeps his great ideas in, and he goes on an urgent quest to get it back. He meets new people and, surprise!, has an epiphany not generated from solitary deep-thinking. But the whole time, we know Bickford will get his notebook back, and we know he will learn something, and so we, the audience, learn nothing.*** The rest of this comment may contain spoilers ***The little details of this movie (people will orgasm from great ideas?), the supporting characters (some of whom irritatingly disappear with no concluding remarks), their problems (being a kleptomaniac, being gay, having schizophrenia, etc.), their heart-wrenching back-stories (playing D&D...) -- they don't matter because they are supporting something that isn't there. They will admit to some secret they have told no one else, but doing this does not affect the movie in the long run. Bickford will still find his notebook. Bickford will still get his girl and realize that great thoughts don't make for great fun. The frosting doesn't exactly matter if you forgot to add eggs to the batter in the first place.Bickford is supposed to be an anguished genius, but he never seems to have any truly great thoughts, nor feel any truly great despair. He does not exactly fit any pre-existing archetypes (unlike most of the other characters -- the nymphomaniac, pot-addicted artist; the deep-down egocentric, materialistic musician; the gay frat boy; the easily-swayed role-playing gamer), but still feels 2-D. Bickford Schmeckler supposedly has some cool ideas, but this movie was definitely not one of them. Time and talent were squandered (and oddly advocating of promiscuous sex, but not doing drugs, even if you are schizophrenic because apparently there really are aliens living in your brain?).But props to John Swihart for an awesome soundtrack. And look out for the song "I Don't Know" by Mushman, Patrick Fugit's (and David Fetzer's) band.See this movie only if you like the actors enough to get excited whenever they have screen time... even if it's severely wasted screen time.