Review: (500) Days of Summer.
If you haven't heard of the movie, here's the trailer.
... and within that first 30 seconds of the trailer, Fox Searchlight you had my money in your hand. Zooey Deshanel (Summer) singing lyrics from my favorite Smiths song "There is a Light That Never Goes Out." No matter what I HAD TO see this movie opening weekend.
This is not a love story. This is a story about love.
From the opening sequence of the movie, with Regina Spektor's beautiful song "Us" playing as the credits rolled, this movie had me, and it tugged at my heart strings for the entire hour and a half.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in my eyes, played the most spot on hopeless romantic since John Cusack was Rob Gordon in "High Fidelity." And I definitely know a thing or two about being a hopeless romantic. I'd sit there as Gordon-Levitt's character, Tom, endured this journey of love and heartache, and would cringe every time he'd be a "sucker for love" as I like to call it, because I am all too familiar with those pitfalls. This movie more than any other of it's kind, that I've seen, encapsulates what it really feels to love and lose.
It definitely feels more real than these bullshit Hollywood tales of love that we've seen over and over. And I think this has a great deal to do with the format of the movie, it isn't told in the regular "start to finish" way that most movies of it's similar genre are told. It's broken up in such a way that you feel both the elation and heartache within moments of each other, leaving you with a "deeper" understanding of Tom and Summer's relationship.
There were also many clever subtleties that I noticed in the cinematography of the movie that I thoroughly enjoyed; from the use of the color blue used in anything relating to the character Summer to bring out the color of Zooey Deschanel's eyes to Tom walking frantically down a spiral staircase to signify the downward spiral of their relationship. The soundtrack of the movie is also something that I found to be particularly stellar. As I stated before, The Smiths are heard in the movie and that's never a bad thing. Hall & Oate's "You Make My Dreams Come True" may seem a bit out of place for a move like this but somehow it ties perfectly into the soundtrack. But once again Regina Spektor pulls at the heartstrings with the song "Hero" at the emotional climax of the film, in all it's split-screen glory, it's a song that's just heartbreakingly beautiful. The soundtrack added so much more to the emotion in this film.
And lastly, something that I was really happy with is how the movie is set in Los Angeles, the city I love the most in the world. A lot of movies of this genre are set in New York especially, and it was good to see my city as the centerpiece to this great story. I'll tell you that even if you live in the Los Angeles area, you haven't seen L.A. quite like this. I definitely need to see Los Angeles in real-life as beautifully as it's portrayed in the movie sometime soon.
Bottom line: See this film! It's the quintessential movie for anyone that's ever loved so much it hurt and I find it to be more relatable than any "romantic comedy" I've ever seen. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be entertained, and most importantly you'll be at peace with your heartache.
So please, please, please, let me get what I want this time...
-Juicy Justin.
... and within that first 30 seconds of the trailer, Fox Searchlight you had my money in your hand. Zooey Deshanel (Summer) singing lyrics from my favorite Smiths song "There is a Light That Never Goes Out." No matter what I HAD TO see this movie opening weekend.
This is not a love story. This is a story about love.
From the opening sequence of the movie, with Regina Spektor's beautiful song "Us" playing as the credits rolled, this movie had me, and it tugged at my heart strings for the entire hour and a half.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in my eyes, played the most spot on hopeless romantic since John Cusack was Rob Gordon in "High Fidelity." And I definitely know a thing or two about being a hopeless romantic. I'd sit there as Gordon-Levitt's character, Tom, endured this journey of love and heartache, and would cringe every time he'd be a "sucker for love" as I like to call it, because I am all too familiar with those pitfalls. This movie more than any other of it's kind, that I've seen, encapsulates what it really feels to love and lose.
It definitely feels more real than these bullshit Hollywood tales of love that we've seen over and over. And I think this has a great deal to do with the format of the movie, it isn't told in the regular "start to finish" way that most movies of it's similar genre are told. It's broken up in such a way that you feel both the elation and heartache within moments of each other, leaving you with a "deeper" understanding of Tom and Summer's relationship.
There were also many clever subtleties that I noticed in the cinematography of the movie that I thoroughly enjoyed; from the use of the color blue used in anything relating to the character Summer to bring out the color of Zooey Deschanel's eyes to Tom walking frantically down a spiral staircase to signify the downward spiral of their relationship. The soundtrack of the movie is also something that I found to be particularly stellar. As I stated before, The Smiths are heard in the movie and that's never a bad thing. Hall & Oate's "You Make My Dreams Come True" may seem a bit out of place for a move like this but somehow it ties perfectly into the soundtrack. But once again Regina Spektor pulls at the heartstrings with the song "Hero" at the emotional climax of the film, in all it's split-screen glory, it's a song that's just heartbreakingly beautiful. The soundtrack added so much more to the emotion in this film.
And lastly, something that I was really happy with is how the movie is set in Los Angeles, the city I love the most in the world. A lot of movies of this genre are set in New York especially, and it was good to see my city as the centerpiece to this great story. I'll tell you that even if you live in the Los Angeles area, you haven't seen L.A. quite like this. I definitely need to see Los Angeles in real-life as beautifully as it's portrayed in the movie sometime soon.
Bottom line: See this film! It's the quintessential movie for anyone that's ever loved so much it hurt and I find it to be more relatable than any "romantic comedy" I've ever seen. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be entertained, and most importantly you'll be at peace with your heartache.
So please, please, please, let me get what I want this time...
-Juicy Justin.
posted by justin xavier enriquez at
3:00 AM
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