#500 Days of Summer 2009

[filmjunky-99]

5 0 0 d a y s o f s u m m e r, 2009 🎬 dir. marc webb joseph gordon levitt

[milla984]

500 Days of Summer screencaps MGG as Paul

@matthew-gray-gubler-lover @reidsbookclub @cynbx @spookyspemilyreid @spookydrreid

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[cosmonautroger]

500 Days Of Summer, Marc Webb, 2009

[popclture]

500 Days Of Summer (2009)

[cinemajunkie70]

❤️💯

[sslimbo]

[chromaticscenes]

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

[bigger-picture-darwinism]

My Movie List (February 2024)

I've been so busy with work and school that I've hardly gotten to watch anything </3 BUT quality over quantity, I suppose, so here we are. again, I will ALWAYS take suggestions, please and thank you :)

500 Days of Summer* - 2/20/24

Isle of Dogs - 2/21/24

Paper Man* - 2/27/24

total: 3

loved - disliked - watched before*

[oftwodarkmoons]

[cherryobsession]

Scott Pilgrim shifted me into the Digicam Days.

[gaykarstaagforever]

I watched (500) Days of Summer, which I never saw. In 2009 I was at least the generational target for this, in that I'm around the same age as JGL and Zooey Deschanel. I think I missed it because at the time I was too edgelord for what were marketed as romantic comedies. Plus it gave off serious Zach Braff indie hipster energy and I was out of that phase and annoyed by it by like 2005.

I remember discourse on here about it more recently than that. Which makes sense, because it is a pretty good movie I think everyone in their mid-20s (especially men) can immediately relate to. Sad that those men probably won't see it like I didn't, because they are too X for movies without blue sky beams.

The cast is good and it is well-constructed, with only a couple awkward things. Narration wasn't necessary even if I know why it was there (evidence of main character Tom's view of himself as the star of the world). And the movie doesn't need to keep stopping to explain what it is trying to say (at least, not to me, because I am super-smart and never entirely miss the point of a movie). But I like the non-linear progression and the unexpected surrealist moments, like the dance number with the animated birds, and the parody French New Wave movie.

The ENTIRE MOVIE is peering into and out through Tom's perspective of reality, and he is a kid pretending to be an adult who can't feel anything without it consuming him. What he thinks he knows is just media tropes he has consumed and egotistically forgotten didn't come from reflecting on his own experiences. He considers himself the player character in a video game where anything he does with other people is only a success when he "wins" something. He takes relationship advice from his little sister as if she were Yoda, because she is precocious and eager and he is too immature to know the difference between that and actual insight.

And none of this is bad or makes him a bad person. This is simply a complex definition of being young. Tom is young, and doesn't know how young he is, and is annoying and emotionally manipulative because of that. And aren't we, weren't we, all? Growing up is growing through that and learning to laugh at the emo baby goon you were.

Now, my question is, does the movie know that? I'm not sure. Sometimes it seems to appreciate how Tom is the cause of and solution to all of his problems. Other times it seems as if trapped itself in Tom's pissy sexist immaturity, blaming Summer and society and the media for why pretty girls are impenetrable mysteries who don't ever get how intense male creepiness is what devotion IS, dammit!

It was like the screenplay was written by a guy who was almost over a divorce. But not quite. And while that may be an emotionally honest tone, it muddles what I think they were hoping to show. Not that Tom isn't in his way a victim, as we all are, of the times and places in which we live, and of the whims of other people. But the degree to which that matters seems far more irrelevant here, where it is clear that the great bulk of Tom's issues are him being a desperate selfish man-baby who thinks of women as trophies and toys to satisfy his need for play.

A movie from Summer's perspective would be very different. She is young and selfish too, but also demonstrates a healthy self-acceptance. She knows who she is, more or less, and knows what she is about, more or less. ...Until she doesn't. But that isn't flightiness or mysterious feminine wiles. That's a person doing life. We are ALL like that. Summer seems to understand that about herself, at least better than Tom does about anyone.

But again, the fact that the movie has named her Summer, and Tom meets Autumn at the end and appears poised to go off not treating another woman as an actual person, tells me the movie itself is, at least in part, as not self-aware as Tom. And that is a little frustrating.

If you are yourself a young man, or an old man who never grew up, and haven't figured it out yet, women are humans with human feelings. They are only mysterious because you aren't paying attention to them and are holding them to a standard where you expect them to be the solution to your emotional problems. And that is YOU, not them. And how can you expect to ever love or be loved by them, when you aren't regarding them as people? Because love is between two people. If one of them isn't a person to the other one, whatever there is will never be love.

I don't think Tom learns that, and neither does the movie, even when it shows his expectations vs his reality at Summer's engagement party.

...Which, okay. Yes. Summer should have told him that was what it was. But this is all from Tom's perspective. Maybe she tried and he wasn't paying attention, as usual, too caught up in his own doggedly persistent obsession with being coupled to her.

(500) Days of Summer is at least an accurate portrayal of what it is like to be a young dummy in love. It is valuable in that, and has some wisdom to impart about the foibles of that. I just wish it was as smart as it hopes to be. Because the world is cruel and imperfect, and Summer used Tom in a way he clearly couldn't handle, and she should probably not have done that. But what Tom is doing to her is way worse, and what he is doing to HIMSELF is, while inevitable, his biggest problem of all.

An interesting movie, at any rate. Worth exploring.

[filmjunky-99]

5 0 0 d a y s o f s u m m e r, 2009 🎬 dir. marc webb joseph gordon levitt

[milla984]

500 Days of Summer screencaps MGG as Paul

@matthew-gray-gubler-lover @reidsbookclub @cynbx @spookyspemilyreid @spookydrreid

»»»— read pinned post for taglist info —«««

»— Masterlists links in bio —«

[greensparty]

This Month In History - August

This is quite a month for landmark anniversaries, here's a few:

August 7, 2009: (500) Days of Summer opens

In August 2009, one of the great screen romances of the 00s was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014. Happy 15 (500)DOS!

August 12-13, 1989: Moscow Music Peace Festival took place in Moscow

On the anniversary of Woodstock, a hard rock concert to benefit an addiction foundation took place in the Soviet Union in Aug. 1989. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014. Happy 35th Moscow Music Peace Festival!

August 13, 1999: Bowfinger opens

In August 1999, one of Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy's best movies was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2019. Happy 25th Bowfinger!

August 15, 1979: Apocalypse Now opens

In August 1979, one of the greatest war movies of all time opened. I don't know what was more epic and daring: the movie itself or Francis Ford Coppola making it as seen in the documentary Hearts of Darkness? It has been spoofed in other movies countless times, but you can't hold a candle to the original. Happy 45th AN!

August 16, 1989: Mother's Milk released

In August 1989, the 4th album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers was released. I was aware of the group prior to this album, but this is where I noticed and liked them. They also got some radio play with their cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground". It was also a transitional record in that it was the first album with Chad Smith and John Fusciante, the classic lineup! The next album Blood Sugar Sex Magik is where they really blew the roof off, but this is one of my favorite RHCP albums. Happy 35th MM!

August 18, 1969: Take the Money and Run opens

In August 1969, one of the funniest comedies ever was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2019. Happy 55 TTMAR!

August 18, 1989: Sex, Lives and Videotape and Casualties of War both open

In August 1989, two of my favorite movies from that year were released on the same day. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014. Happy 35th SLAV and COW!

August 19, 1994: Killing Zoe opens

In Aug. 1994, Roger Avery's best movie was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2019. Happy 30th KZ!

August 21, 2009: Inglorious Basterds opens

In August 2009, Quentin Tarantino's best movie of the 00s (and that's saying something) was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014. Happy 15 IB!

August 23, 1994: Grace released

In August 1994, Jeff Buckley's only studio album was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2019. Happy 30th Grace!

August 24, 1979: Rock 'n' Roll High School opens / Facts of Life premieres

In August 1979 both The Ramones' movie opened and one of the longest-running TV sitcoms premiered on the same day! Allan Arkush (a Roger Corman alum) directed the musical comedy movie that was reminiscent of 1950s rock-spoitation movies. In 2015, when I spoke with the film's star P.J. Soles at Rock and Shock, I asked what it was like making this movies and she said she said it was a blast working with The Ramones. I bet! Even though they were a punk band and the idea of movie about them seemed like a commercial move, this movie was nothing but fun! Here is the piece I wrote about Facts of Life in 2019. Happy 45 RNRHS and FOL!

August 25, 1994: My So-Called Life premieres

In August 1994, one of the greatest TV shows about being a teenager was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2019. Happy 30th MSCL!

August 30, 1994: Definitely, Maybe released

In August 1994 the debut album from Oasis was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2019. Expect my album review of the upcoming anniversary release later this week. Happy 30th DM!

[popclture]

500 Days Of Summer (2009)

[midnightblueclouds]

zoey deschanel & joseph gordon-levitt behind the scenes of 500 days of summer, 2009 ☀️