Wow, I don’t really know how to start these reviews anymore^[1]… Well let’s just delve into it one way or another.

Prologue

This movie is ‘the little indie that could’. It made its way through the festival circuit with amazing praise and many people declared it one of the best of the year, but why hasn’t anyone really heard about it outside the movie nerdom? WELL… 1) it was released in a very limited amount of theaters and 2) there is ZERO funding for the advertising budget. Even though critics have cuddled and spooned with this movie for months now, it still hasn’t really gained much steam.

This movie is written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, both of which you have never heard of. Now, being a writer you have never heard of before isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but MAYBE it is the fact that they have only written 2 produced scripts: this one and Pink Panther 2^[2]. So people in the industry may have just assumed this would be shit as well.

The director of this flick isn’t in the same boat of making something of questionable quality previously, he has just never done anything. All the credits for Marc Webb before this were short films or music videos; his total IMBD credits list is 5.

Wow.

So these factors combined couldn’t convince someone to sink a bit of money into marketing this flick… dumb move.

What is Good About It?

I love the times where I get to gush over a movie and times like this don’t occur very often… So what is good about this movie? EVERYTHING.

It starts out with a very simple few-line prologue that explains what the movie is^[3] and just like in many Shakespearean plays of the past, you eventually forget what the prologue told you and expect an alternative outcome. This movie MAKES YOU FORGET WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW IS GOING TO HAPPEN, or at least if you didn’t forget, you just hope that it wasn’t true.

So… I guess what I am saying is that this movie sucks you in and gets you emotionally invested in the plot. WHY IS THAT? Well, first the script is so incredibly well written it is almost unfathomable that these two wrote Pink Panther 2. Secondly, the directing is fantastic, the shot selection is impeccable and the camera reveals were perfectly timed. Third of all, the cast is FAN-F*CKING-TASTIC… I have said time and time again that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is reason enough to watch any film and, IN FACT, he is the only reason that I will torture myself with the movie G.I. Joe. Zooey Deschanel is always so lovely that it KILLS ME^[4] and the supporting cast made up of a who’s who of background people you recognize but you don’t know from where. All of these ingredients create a brilliant coherent feeling for this film that allows the direction and script to just pop off the screen in a completely effortless fashion.

Three character actors you should recognize... Well, do you?

PS… the editing is fantastic and the use of the “chapters”^[5] works perfectly.

Also, another important point is that the non-linear storytelling is quite effective and is used for both sources of dramatic tension and comedic effect. It didn’t seem like a gimmick but quite simply the way that this story had to be told.^[6]

What Is BAD About It?

Something that my friend Laura L. brought up whilst I was writing this was quite interesting; she responded to my Facebook status “OH. i forgot to say something about this… Go see the movie (500) Days Of Summer, it is now one of my favorites.” with this comment:

“really? i saw it the other day. it was cute and quirky, but i think it was cute and quirky for the sake of being a cute and quirky indie film. i enjoyed it but i’m noticing a pattern of movies lately.”

This is definitely an opinion that is shared by a lot of people, and I agree that some of these movies CAN, in fact, lean on the qualities of the indie quirky film like a crutch. Having a kick ass soundtrack, doing quirky off the wall sequences that can only exist in a heightened reality, having characters that are acted in a very realistic way but their traits are more of a caricature than reality, and finally having a much maligned lead character who is struggling to have a bold realization in life or to make things right again… all these things are reoccurring in many indie films, and some films do them horrendously. My response to people that believe this would be the same response to people that would’ve shunned Renoir just because he was JUST ANOTHER impressionist artist back when impressionism was in its hay day: Just because it is another of the same type of popular art at the time, doesn’t make it any less of an artistic accomplishment.

OK, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but let me get into a few things that were bad about it…

The movie definitely had a bit of a formulaic plot line. There were points that you knew would occur because of things that were introduced early on and because you have seen other films of this same style. To someone like myself, it leaves me a bit disheartened because I like being surprised. Also, this is a really weird objection… but… I didn’t like some of the locations. It almost seemed like they were rushed to find them and they ended up just picking what was most convenient instead of what best suited the scene. I remember thinking while watching the flick that I just didn’t like how the sets/locations looked… but trust me, none of the negative things could possibly overshadow the good, and the “I saw that coming” and “that location just looks outta place” quickly fell away as I was drawn deeper and deeper into the lives of the characters.

Epilogue

I highly recommended this movie.

This may be one of the best date movies that could have ever been created. It is an honest romantic/anti-romantic comedy with completely real and personable characters. By creating these two characters at the opposite ends of the “belief in love” spectrum, they are able to create so many moments that anyone^[7] can easily place themselves in, and thank god they made both characters EXCRUCIATINGLY likable because it is easy to make one of the two jerks. You honestly root for both of them in the movie and that is one of the reasons why this flick works so well. You can easily remember times that you were friends with someone that was heartbroken and forlorn, you can easily remember times that you yourself were heartbroken and forlorn, and there are even times that you can remember when you made someone heartbroken and forlorn. And that doesn’t even include the times that you can relate to vomiting on stage at a karaoke joint while you try to since Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” for the 3rd time that night.

This movie is real and can easily create connections to its viewers. (500) Days of Summer is a movie that I will watch more than once in my life, and I hope you will give it a chance.

Rating: A

1. this is the first review I have written since Tyler implemented the awesome IMDB side panel… thingy… [↩]
2. I am sorry to swear, but Pink Panther 2 was shit. [↩]
3. I won’t reveal spoilers here [↩]
4. Zooey Deschanel is an unofficial Hollywood crush of mine. There is only one official crush and her name is Mila Kunis [↩]
5. Day 55, Day 12, Day 456 [↩]
6. The way we look back at relationships often isn’t in a linear fashion, but in flashes of things that pop in your head from time to time, and each event generally leads you to remember another event that didn’t necessarily take place in chronological order. [↩]
7. unless you are heartless [↩]

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