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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 09/06/2009 : 11:57:28
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I liked Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 3rd Rock from the Sun. I liked Zooey Deschanel as the music teacher in Bridge to Terabithia - though a little Zooey goes a long way. I understand that Joseph G-L is launching himself as a director, and I wish him well with that.
But I hope he's learning what not to do by paying attention on films like this. It's not bad enough to command any sardonic wit. It's just so darn disappointing, bloody disappointing, fucking disappointing. And I offer those three adjectives as an example of how the film fails to let us know what it's trying to say.
There's not enough com for it to be rom-com. And the rom would only sustain if these were two remarkable people. But they ain't. He's an average sorta guy working in a job that doesn't take slices of his soul in the way that being an architect would. And I mean that in a good way.
We're told she's remarkable. We're told good things happen around her and she catalyzes change in people. But if you tell me Superman can fly and stop time, and then you don't build that into the story ... well who cares?
Look, it's pleasant enough not to offend -- unless it's your sense of cine-wonderment that's offended, as was mine. It's predictable, the subsidiary characters are sketched in even more lightly than the two lead. But if ever a film needed more than a few laff-out-loud moments, some wit, some wonder - this is it.
OK - they did try. There's a sequence that's meant to express what J G-L feels being in love and unexpectedly he starts dancing, and an animated bluebird appears on his shoulder. It should be an entrancing scene, a charming scene. But, like too many other scenes throughout the film, it turns into a game of spot the homage.
So good luck Joe, in your directing career. And Zooey -- there's only so much cutesy an audience can take.
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 09/06/2009 : 15:30:59
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My take from Sundance:
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER***** The smartest, funniest, best-made thing I saw at the festival; I predict major commercial success when it�s released in the States on July 24. Yet another boy/girl time-shifter, but this one gets it right. Tom [Joseph Gordon-Levitt], a bored copywriter for a greeting card company, meets Summer [Zooey Deschanel] when she lands a job as his boss�s assistant. Their time together is real and fantastic, somber and farcical, knowing and clueless, exactly like real life, of which this flick will remind you frequently. The impressively savvy script feels wholly original, like the next step in romantic screen stories; it�s so confident that it�s able to make fun of movie clich�s without seeming unwelcome. The two stars are beyond delightful: one demonstrates marvelous verbal and physical clowning that seems to come out of nowhere, the other finds dozens of little ways to let the camera show the girl of anybody�s dreams. You love them both, as characters and as performers. I�ll leave the film�s many surprises for you to discover, but just remember this: when the soundtrack strikes up a familiar Hall & Oates tune from the Seventies, you�re about to see the funniest four minutes of film in a very long time.
My complete report on Sundance 2009 |
Edited by - randall on 09/06/2009 15:35:06 |
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ChocolateLady 
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 12/25/2009 : 09:26:50
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quote:
Originally posted by randall
My take from Sundance:
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER***** The smartest, funniest, best-made thing I saw at the festival; I predict major commercial success when it�s released in the States on July 24. Yet another boy/girl time-shifter, but this one gets it right. Tom [Joseph Gordon-Levitt], a bored copywriter for a greeting card company, meets Summer [Zooey Deschanel] when she lands a job as his boss�s assistant. Their time together is real and fantastic, somber and farcical, knowing and clueless, exactly like real life, of which this flick will remind you frequently. The impressively savvy script feels wholly original, like the next step in romantic screen stories; it�s so confident that it�s able to make fun of movie clich�s without seeming unwelcome. The two stars are beyond delightful: one demonstrates marvelous verbal and physical clowning that seems to come out of nowhere, the other finds dozens of little ways to let the camera show the girl of anybody�s dreams. You love them both, as characters and as performers. I�ll leave the film�s many surprises for you to discover, but just remember this: when the soundtrack strikes up a familiar Hall & Oates tune from the Seventies, you�re about to see the funniest four minutes of film in a very long time.
My complete report on Sundance 2009
Sorry, Bafta, I'm with Randall on this one. And while I do have to agree that Zooey's being exceptional doesn't come into the film enough after the opening, that's about the biggest drawback I could find in the film (a few little niggles, as well, of course. Nothing is perfect). It does, however, set us up for a slightly tongue-in-cheek look at rom-coms in general. What I really liked was how we see scenes of their relationship in two different lights. First, when all is rosy, and then again, when Tom looks back to see if he missed the signs that things weren't going as well as he thought. This was done not as totally obvious differences, but with the most minor changes in inflections of the lines, or subtle switches in body language.
As for Zooey herself, she was my favourite part of the movie Failure to Launch and without her bits (and in particular, the CPR on the Mockingbird), that film would have been a total failure to launch itself! Go Zooey! |
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rockfsh 
"Laugh, Love, Cheer"
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Posted - 12/30/2009 : 23:01:58
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This movie resonated with me because....
spoiler:
I experienced something like (500) Days of Summer followed by (10,000) Days of Autumn, and she even has a birthmark that looks like a squashed bug.  |
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 12/31/2009 : 00:30:35
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| I'm on Baffy's side. I thought it was very nearly an utter disaster, but Zooey does stir my insides somewhat so I did understand JGL's feelings a tad (other than she was actually pretty two dimensional and ultimately unpleasant). My main problem, as far as I remember now, was that every cutesy "realistic" moment of what it's *really like* to be in love with someone was so howlingly teenage and studied I must have rolled my eyes about (500) times. I liked some of the ideas - the split screen party was well done, but my other half was tearing her hair out by the end at how formulaic and insipid it all was. Definitely the kind of film any introspective 17 year old would think is the most insightful film on the subject ever made -but with a bit more life and love experience it rang hollow and trite to me. A great relationship film? - Sam Mendes' "Away we Go" - and that's genuinely funny and moving too. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 12/31/2009 : 04:35:01
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quote:
Originally posted by demonic
A great relationship film? - Sam Mendes' "Away we Go" - and that's genuinely funny and moving too.
Well, there's absolutely no contest there. "Away We Go" is a far superior film in investigating relationships, and yes, far funnier. |
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MisterBadIdea 
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 01/01/2010 : 09:44:01
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I'm somewhere in between. It's a confused movie that doesn't know what it's trying to say, for sure, and what it does say is not particularly enlightening. I enjoyed it and I saw a lot of myself in it, but yes, BB's complaints that 1) not enough com in the romcom and 2) nothing particularly spectacular about these two people -- both very true. And yet, it has JGL dancing around to Hall & Oates in a particularly wonderful scene. It's cut-rate Woody Allen but boy does it try, and in a way I respect the effort.
Oh, and that scene with Gordon-Levitt doing drunk karaoke to The Clash's "Train in Vain"? That hits wayyyyyyyyy too close to home. |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 01/02/2010 : 20:39:25
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quote:
Originally posted by rockfsh
This movie resonated with me because....
spoiler:
I experienced something like (500) Days of Summer followed by (10,000) Days of Autumn, and she even has a birthmark that looks like a squashed bug.
Good for you, rocky. I also thought it had the most appealing "button" of the year. I'm still hearing a little buzzola for original screenplay nom. We'll find out in about a month. But of my last Sundance trip, at least three film titles should be called on Oscar night, at least for noms. I'll be reporting on this year's fest at about that same time. |
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rockfsh
"Laugh, Love, Cheer"
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Posted - 01/03/2010 : 02:18:42
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quote:
Good for you, rocky. I also thought it had the most appealing "button" of the year. I'm still hearing a little buzzola for original screenplay nom. We'll find out in about a month. But of my last Sundance trip, at least three film titles should be called on Oscar night, at least for noms. I'll be reporting on this year's fest at about that same time.
and that elf on Santa's lap is one of the results of those(10,000) days |
Edited by - rockfsh on 01/03/2010 02:19:13 |
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Chris C
"Four words, never backwards."
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Posted - 06/27/2011 : 19:16:44
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We had a bit of a mini film fest at home this weekend. This was the first of the three that we watched.
I have to admit, it's not the sort of film that I would choose to see. Having said that, I really enjoyed it (in fact, we all did). Reading the comments above, it seems to be a bit of a Marmite movie - you either love it or hate it. I could quite happily sit down and watch this again. What more can I say?
Oh, the Summer character and her attitude to life and relationships reminded me very much of someone I used to know a long time ago. But I doubt, somehow, that it's the same person rockfsh knew.  |
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rockfsh
"Laugh, Love, Cheer"
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Posted - 06/27/2011 : 20:16:16
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The last time I was in Washington D.C., my "Summer" left an overcoat for "Autumn" at our hotel. The front desk called me and said, "Your girlfriend's here with a coat for your wife."  |
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(500) Days of Summer
