I was only a freshman in high school when I first watched Zach Braff’s indie film “Garden State.”

I promise you I didn’t “get it.”

At the time, I didn’t fully comprehend the main conflicts of the movie — being lost after college, feeling numb due to a life on medication and falling swiftly in love with a compulsive liar.

Yet I still proudly — and naively  — declared it as one of my favorite movies, and as I’ve watched it regularly, it’s meant something different to me each time. It still remains one of my go-to rainy day movies. As I grow closer to the age of the film’s central characters, I can understand their struggles more while being a bit disillusioned to how romantic and trite it can be at times.

But I still love it.

So it didn’t take much time for me to reach for my wallet when Braff announced his Kickstarter project for the only film he’s planned to write, film and star in since “Garden State.” “Wish I Was Here” reached its $2 million goal Monday and continues to gain more contributors.

I didn’t give much, but I hardly hesitated to contribute what I could. In that moment of glee, I was too busy thinking about another film from Braff I could dissect and watch over and over again to think that anyone would have a problem with Braff’s crowd-sourcing approach.

Braff said he resorted to Kickstarter so he could have complete artistic control of the film: who stars in it, who does the photography and set design and who makes the final edit.

I have a bit of a soft spot for stick-it-to-the-man opposition of corporate greed’s pandering to the perceived average American person, but detractors to Braff’s project have been numerous and, at times, vicious.

Slights against Braff are obvious. He starred in a network television show for a decade, has been in a number of films and contributed his voice to countless commercials — why can’t he just pay for the movie himself?

Braff quickly combatted some of those critics, saying he would certainly contribute some unidentified amount of cash from his own pocket.

Other critics had more of a problem with people’s willingness to give money to a Hollywood Kickstarter rather than, say, impoverished children.

Claims like these are petty. The same thing can be said about someone who forks over hundreds for an iPhone 5 or breaks the bank for a luxury sedan. A lot of people could always be giving more to charity, but they also have the freedom to support things they believe in. 

Many of these detracting opinions come down to disdain for “Garden State,” with one of the more outlandish and dedicated attacks coming from Tim Heidecker of “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” fame.

Heidecker wrote a fake script detailing a couple with financial problems that, in one way, stemmed from the bumbling husband’s willingness to donate to Braff’s followup to an overrated, piece-of-crap movie.

But Braff’s sincerity has not yet been questionable here. He wants to make another film people love, and he wants to get those people involved in the process. Even the smallest contribution to Braff’s fund gives the donor a sneak peek into the moviemaking process.

Braff is not the first or last to take advantage of Kickstarter’s wide reach and easy access to funding, even citing the “Veronica Mars” movie-funding project that had the same success as inspiration.

Braff and company’s crowd-sourcing approach to moviemaking will draw the ire of other industry big shots, but it may well be the future of filmmaking, where moviemakers let those who watch their films endlessly, identifying and perceiving differently with each viewing, be a part of the magic.

What’s so bad about that? 

Brian Sibille is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Lafayette.