(500) Days of Summer, or How I love this "story about love"

(500) Days of Summer

Written by: Michael H. Weber & Scott Neustadter

Directed by: Marc Webb

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Zooey Deschanel. 

First rule of fiction-making: the telling of the story affects the story itself.

This, it seemed to me, was the main lesson to be learnt after hearing Tom & Summer's story. Sure, the film centers around a romantic relationship, but its emphasis on (re)playing, (re)visiting, revising and repeating anecdotes, images and little moments throughout make this one of the most accomplished (post)modern "stories about love" (not a "love story") since Kauffman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. For someone who is obsessed with Clementine and Joel's story, this is no empty praise. To attempt a plot synopsis would be to undermine the feel and intelligence of the script but, just as the trailer lets you know: this is a story about boy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Tom, a hopeless romantic waiting for the "one") meets girl (Zooey Deschanel's Summer, a free spirit realist), but this isn't your traditional "boy meets girl, happily ever after" film. The initial credits tell you this: "The following is a work of fiction and is not based on any real people. [next:] Especially you [insert name I can't remember]. [next:] Bitch." 

That its plot seems at once fresh yet rooted in cliches shifts the emphasis from a simple "what's going to happen?" (cause you already know - especially if you've seen as many rom-coms and seen as much hopeless romantic TV as Tom has) to a "how is it going to be told?" That is not to say there are no surprising plot-twists (arguably the third act works because it throws a wrench in the works that's hard to surmise from our/Tom's perspective) but the film wows and wonders because it manages to tell an ordinary story in an extraordinary way, with impromptu dance sequences, hysterical karaoke sequences, wondrous split-screen scenes ("Expectations" vs "Reality"), inventive formal framing (that lovely sketched landscape) and a final line that will leave you utterly convinced that this is the must-watch Summer 2009 (date) film. A+

Gigantic, or How THIS is what's wrong with indies these days

Gigantic

Written by: Matt Aselton & Adam Nagata

Directed by: Matt Aselton

Starring: Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman & Ed Asner.

It had been a while since a film infuriated me and frustrated me more than Gigantic did. In a way, the film takes most of the things we tend to love (or at least appreciate watching) in "indie" films (quirky characters, dysfunctional families, introspective leads) and uses them in such bizarrely contrived ways that you end up wondering why someone (Aselton, I presume) would think all of the elements belonged in one single film. Take for example Ed Asner's character: he is Paul Dano's father (I won't even bother with names, cause they alone made me roll my eyes every time; "I'm Happy, I mean, my name is Harriet, but everyone calls me Happy", seriously?) and every scene he's in becomes a "Old People Are Crazy" skit, having him ask for bourbon at an office ("Dad they don't do that anymore"), wonder why Paul doesn't have a porter in his apt ("He lives in squalor!" he exclaims) and be utterly overwhelmed by a cellphone. In the same way characters like Deschanel's "Happy," Goodman's "Al Lolly" and Dano's "Brian Weathersby" (see what I mean?) become mere caricatures of themselves by pushing their endearing quirks to awful extremes: Happy comes off as a 'happy drunk,' Al's racism and homophobia try to come off as tongue in cheek but that somehow rings hollow while Brian's big reveal at the end of the film seems like a cinematic cop out for character development since it doesn't feel earned or deserved.

There are good moments in the film (the pool scene between Deschanel and Dano is starkly cute) but these characters, their lives and their dialogue inspired little other than frustration so that when we get to the end of the film and Brian's mom and Happy share a balcony scene and actually utter the words "I think I fucked things up"/"Nothing in this world is fucked up" (or something as inane like that) I wanted to mirror a character in the film and punch these people in the face. Thank god I had Ms Deschanel's wardrobe to stare at (and sometimes puzzle over) otherwise I think I might have walked out. C -

Gigantic, or How is Zooey Deschanel hoarding the Indie Romantic Comedy leads?

With this and 500 Days of Summer, Ms Deschanel pretty much has crowned herself the Indie Queen of Romantic Leads: