Jul 19th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
500 Days of Summer
This was the first movie of Summer 2009 that I really liked, and I really liked it. To an almost embarrassing extent. It’s as if someone leapt into my brain and made a movie just for me. You’ve got your fragmented narrative perspective, your Pixies karaoke, complaints that a city is marred by overly-abundant parking, intertextuality, etc. I think the latter is especially important; the “happy ending” looks different when you consider the repeated references to The Graduate.
30 Responses to “500 Days of Summer”
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July 19th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I was real excited for this movie ……. until I read the the AVClub review …………. bastards.
July 19th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
It’s as if someone leapt into my brain and made a movie just for me.
Given the other movies you like I’m now much, much less likely to go see this film.
July 19th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Alternate title for 500DOS:
“A Crappy Marriage”!
July 19th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Gordon, Leavitt alone!
July 19th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
It was an awesome movie.
July 19th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I resent the wikipedia link on “intertextuality.” As if we wouldn’t know what that was.
But, speaking of intertextuality, I will now watch the movie with increased pleasure, looking for the parking references.
July 19th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
To each generation, its own Annie Hall. May 28-year-olds forever find self-referentiality fresh and clever.
July 19th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Looks like it’s just another Manic Pixie Dream Girl movie to me.
July 19th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Which means that Matt needs a girlfriend.
July 19th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Despite everything positive the critics are saying about it, I can tell I’m going to hate it.
July 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I just saw this today and absolutely loved it. 2nd to Star Trek for me, but I’m a huge Trek fan so I’m biased.
500 Days of Summer was a fantastic movie. I wouldn’t really call it a romantic comedy, but if I had to, I would put it up there with some of the best ever. The whole time I was watching it, I just kept thinking “this is really good, even though the basic story is incredibly old”. What carried it so well was the directing and music, of course, but Joseph Gordon Levitt was just fantastic. In a movie about a guy who falls for a girl who doesn’t fall for him, he pulls off both the humor and the pathos perfectly.
Anyways, I was thinking about Gordon-Leavitt…has anyone ever won an Academy Award for their work in a romantic comedy? I think some of the people in this movie deserve consideration, but then again, I wouldn’t really call 500 DOS rom-com.
July 19th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Saw the trailer yesterday (Hurt Locker was the feature. It was great). 500DOS looks like weak tea to me. OMG you like the Smiths! How incredibly indie of you!
What’s the significance of the () in the title? Or are they just some look-at-me affectation?
July 19th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
@8, I liked the genre better when it was The Band or Beck doing it.
July 19th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
@8: I suppose, to you, The Philadelphia Story was just another Manic Pixie Dreamgirl movie.
My Man Godfrey?
Definitely another Manic Pixie Dreamgirl movie.
He who is tired of Manic Pixie Dreamgirl movies, is tired of life.
July 19th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Re: intertextuality, etc
Dear God, not more of this postmodern BS again. Mr. Yglesias needs to put down the Foucault and the bong again, and read something worth reading.
July 19th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
How about a spoiler alert? Seriously, WTF?
July 19th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Re: Romantic Comedy wins:
Woody Allen won Best Director for Annie Hall.
Diane Keaton won Best Actress for Annie Hall.
Allen and Marshall Brickman won Best Script.
The movie itself won Best Picture.
As Good As It Gets won Best Picture.
Jack Nicholson won Best Actor in As Good As It Gets.
Helen Hunt won Best Actress in As Good As It Gets.
Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture.
My Fair Lady won Best Picture.
The Apartment won Best Picture. Billy Wilder won as director. He and IAL Diamond shared a win for script. Editing and art direction also won.
It Happened One Night swept the biggies at the Oscars — Picture, Director, Script, Leading Actors. (Frank Capra, Robert Riskin, Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert)
July 19th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
@Ted
No, I’m just not a teenager anymore.
July 19th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
@8: I suppose, to you, The Philadelphia Story was just another Manic Pixie Dreamgirl movie.
OT: The “type” goes back to the earliest days of cinema (e.g., Clara Bow), but, with all due respect, Kate Hepburn’s character in The Philadelphia Story was not even close to being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
July 19th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Kate Hepburn’s character in The Philadelphia Story was not even close to being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
How about in “Bringing Up Baby”?
July 19th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Dear God, not more of this postmodern BS again.
Oh, Hector is such a witless ass sometimes. Intertextuality, of course, ain’t much different from biblical exegesis, and was much appreciated by the church fathers that our own pet anachronism slobbers over.
July 19th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
I suppose I should have looked up the Wikipedia entry for “Manic Pixie Dream Girls” before saying that.
July 19th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
the “happy ending” looks different when you consider the repeated references to The Graduate
But the Graduate has a happpy ending … I think
July 20th, 2009 at 2:45 am
Finally, a movie about a Los Angeles that I live and work in and that I recognize. LA’s not portrayed as 1.) a racial powder-keg (Crash), 2.) a future distopia (Blade Runner), 3.) an urban noir nightmare (Collateral), or 4.) a celebrity fellating playground (TMZ), but as City with lots of beautiful things but lacking in proper presentation. Imagine that. Thank you, director/producer people.
And I kinda might be in a little in love with Zooey Deschanel.
July 20th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Re: Intertextuality, of course, ain’t much different from biblical exegesis, and was much appreciated by the church fathers that our own pet anachronism slobbers over.
Well, in that case I guess it’s OK. The Wikipedia entry doesn’t mention biblical exegesis though, it just mentions some postmodern French whackjobs.
July 20th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Anyone who thinks “The Apartment” is a romantic comedy has not seen “The Apartment.”
July 20th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
“Finally, a movie about a Los Angeles that I live and work in and that I recognize. LA’s not portrayed as…”
You should watch the (sadly underrated) LA Story which is every bit as much a love letter to LA as Manhattan is to its eponym.
The movie How to Lose your Lover aka 50 Ways to Leave your Lover is also a great treatment of LA, marred by the fact that the main character is such an a–hole I didn’t really give a damn whether he found love or not, and kept hoping for an unexpected ending, like he gets run over by a car.
July 20th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Jesus, dude, you are NOT helping your case.
(1) The Wikipedia article DOES mention biblical exegesis.
(2) Your comment pretty much admits that you know nothing about the subject, even so you feel happy making the claim that the people mentioned by the Wikipedia article are “postmodern French whackjobs”.
What exactly is going on here? Are we supposed to take away from this that you are simply a slave to fashion? If George W Bush and the rest of his nutcase followers claim to hate “postmodernism”, that’s good enough for you? Or is hating postmodernism the official Vatican line?
You would do well to educate yourself on the subject before making a further fool of yourself. I’d recommend, for a start, listening to Stanley Fish discuss the subject:
July 20th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Maynard Handley,
You are correct that the Wikipedia article does mention biblical exegesis, and I was incorrect. My excuse is that I did not read the full article, rather I scanned the first couple sentences, which did not mention the Bible but did mention this gem:
“The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined by poststructuralist Julia Kristeva in 1966.”
I don’t know who Julia Kristeva is but I do know she is considered a postmodernist, so I stopped reading the artcle then and there. You’re right, it was something of a knee-jerk reaction which I should have been more careful of.
July 21st, 2009 at 2:27 am
As a lifelong Angeleno, I too am looking forward to seeing how the city gets portrayed here. The people you see on TMZ do exist. But they are a tiny sliver of the population here.
Probably my favorite L.A. movies are Chinatown, To Live and Die in L.A., and Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles. I’ve only seen part of Los Angeles Plays Itself.