Paul Celano (chelano) The main character is played by Patrick Fugit and he does a decent job. He is a nerd that makes little things or comes up with cool ideas. He writes a book about changing the world, but cannot find the ending. His book is taken and turned into something big that makes everyone around him think including a girl he likes. The story was pretty interesting and I did enjoy it front start to find. But there were scenes thrown in that left the film boring at points. There is an OK cast for the film and I will say that Matthew Lillard was very horrible in the film. His character was very strange he could just not play him right. This is a light teen movie comedy, but at least it has a better story line than most teen comedies you see. Most rely on horrible scenes or nudity. This movie was about teen life, but actually had an interesting story to go along with it. Not a bad film.

lewiskendell "You killed her? No! How?! With a butcher's knife?!"Disaffected college student Bickford Shmeckler (Patrick Fugit) has filled a book with his cool and revolutionary ideas about reality. One night at a party, beautiful kleptomaniac Sarah (Olivia Wilde) stumbles into his room, and makes off with his book of ideas. Over the next few days, Bickford frantically tries to track the book back down, while reading it has a huge affect on the lives of Sarah, an entire Dungeons and Dragons club, a horny cosmology professor, and a group of homeless nuts led by a man named Spaceman. Yes, the movie really is that random. The most random and peculiar indie comedy that I've seen in a while.   As you can tell from the description, this is a pretty weird movie. It's low-budget, for sure. Lots of obscure tunes from college radio on the soundtrack, and lots of "alternative" humor. I found the attempts at humor to be more bemusing, than anything else. I only recall laughing out loud once (thanks to a few cameos from Reno 911! and a rape joke that came out of nowhere). If the idea of a book giving women brain orgasms sounds funny to you, then you'll be right at home, here. I don't really think I can recommend that anyone who's not a massive Olivia Wilde or Patrick Fugit fan go out of their way to catch this one. The movie takes a turn for the dramatic at the end that doesn't fit well with anything that came before, and the entire script just seems like it could have used a lot more development.

erin s. 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.

Kally I loved this movie. Although my opinion is biased on the fact that I adore Patrick Fugit and would be pleased with anything he was cast in. I was greatly impressed by Olivia Wilde's performance on the big screen, as I had only seen her on a few episodes of The O.C. I found the theories in 'The Book' itself to be 'brain-gasmic' and quite thoughtful. Surly something I, myself, would have wanted to read if there were such a book published.I gave the movie and overall 8 because, although I was excited to see Patrick, the plot was slow and I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending of the film.