Summer Preview - 500 Days of Summer

There are a lot of insanely sweet movies releasing in the next few months, and I'll be covering a lot of them in detail in the next few weeks. We have Michael Mann's Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, Terminator Salvation again with Bale, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, a solo Wolverine movie, the new Pixar flick Up, Tarantino's WWII epic Inglorious Basterds, Judd Apatow's Funny People, Transformers 2, and loads more.

But out of all of these big-budget, star-studded movies, the one I'm looking forward to the most is called (500) Days of Summer.



I was pretty much sold after the Smiths reference in the elevator. For anyone under 30, The Smiths are a great British band that has influenced most UK bands since the late 80's, including Radiohead. Anyone who knows me is familiar with my obsession with The Smiths. Check out "Girlfriend in a Coma" and "The Headmaster Ritual" for starters. To be honest, I'm probably pumped for this movie since I've always dreamed of a pretty girl walking into an elevator and telling me that I have great taste in music because I like The Smiths.

Aside from that, (500) Days of Summer looks like a delightfully quirky indie film. The trailer displays a movie that should be funnier than Little Miss Sunshine and less awkward than Juno (I mean seriously, the dialogue with Rainn Wilson was cringe-worthy). It features at least two laugh-out-loud moments, what looks to be a song and dance number, and a Pirates 3-esque acid trip. Throw in a super-fine Zooey Deschanel with a droll, sensitive Joesph Gordon-Levitt and you've got yourselves a winner.


Zooey Deschanel is mainstream enough by now, after appearances in Yes Man and The Happening, but it's nice to see her return to her indie-film roots.
Gordon-Levitt ("3rd Rock from the Sun"), has done some good work since the show ended, but he could have his break-out role with this movie. Audiences will be treated to a fresh face behind the camera in Marc Webb, who's done nothing to date except a few music videos. Sure, screenplay scribes Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber wrote The Pink Panther 2 (dear god), but I'm willing to assume that they only took that job to pay the bills and finance this movie.

(500) Days of Summer made a big splash at Sundance earlier this year and is primed to be the sleeper hit of this summer. I'm only concerned that the hipster references will keep away large audiences. For all its nonsensical jargon and inclusion of Dario Argento films, Juno was pretty mainstream and accessible. Do kids these days know who Sid Vicious was?

A film's quality is often reflected by its trailer music. This trailer features gems such as Beck's "Black Tambourine", a Regina Spektor song, whose name I can't remember, and Hall and Oates' "You Make My Dreams Come True." If anyone knows the song at the very end of the trailer, let me know. It's wonderful to see a selection of music stretching across decades and genres. In summation: thumpin' soundtrack ==> genius movie. Thus, (500) Days of Summer is going to be a classic.