“This is not a love story. This is a story about love.” is the tagline for 500 Days of Summer, and as these things go, is pretty much on the money. This, combined with the fact that the movie comes from the same production team responsible for Juno, is probably enough for you to know if you’re going to love or hate it. I enjoyed it though, which is kind of what we are here to determine, so just for the fuck of it, let’s delve slightly deeper than prescient taglines.
500 Days is the story of a failed architect turned greeting-card designer, Tom, (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his boss’s beguiling assistant, Summer, (Zooey Deschanel). Tom is a hopeless romantic who manages to find messages of love in The Graduate and Joy Division, Summer is the radiant, scatty, Ringo Star-loving girl he has been searching for his whole life. The only problem is, she doesn’t believe in love. The story arc follows the relationship and subsequent break-up between the two, but is not told in chronological order. From the word go, 500 Days…lets the audience know that things do not work out between Tom and Summer, jumping back and forth within the 500 day time scale of the title, equal screen time is devoted to the good times as to Tom trying to decipher how it all fell apart.
500 Days has realism and maturity sometimes missing in indie rom-coms of this kind, Tom’s plight will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has been involved in a love only partially requited. The scene where he dramatically lashes out at the makiswh romantic sentiments of pop culture, which he peddles on a daily basis at the greeting card company, displays a neat acceptance of the over-simplification of peers like Knocked Up or Juno. 500 Days… exists somewhere between the aspirations of those films and the darker sentiments of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are excellent leads, with a palpable chemistry that makes them a believable couple in the first place. The journeys both their characters make during the film display the tumultuous highs and lows of love, the moments when it is a state to be sought after and also when it is despised. The chronological re-evaluation of Summer from goddess to bitch, finally to just a human being is well handled by Deschanel, and the ambiguity of her character’s feelings for Tom is the perfect vehicle for the gradual acceptance of his own emotional blind-spots.
As the film reaches its final 30-odd days, the narrative switches to a linear format which resists the temptation to take Tom and Summer through a last-gasp epiphany, instead, like the excellent pop songs which punctuate the film, 500 Days of Summer ends a vibrant, complex, and above all honest, story about love.
8/10
500 Days of Summer will be released in the UK On 4th September 2009
Bob Ferguson (View Original Article)
No stranger to being in front of a camera after her memorable performances in Almost Famous, Hitchhiker`s Guide to the Galaxy and, er, Elf, Zooey Deschanel recently interviewed 60`s icon Brian Wilson for the MySpace feature Artist on Artist.
The interview was filmed at the Hollywood Ball and features the pair discussing song writing, early gig memories and a personal moment where Zooey tells Brian he made her cry. Does Brian apologise? Click here to find out.
Zooey releases a new single with M Ward under the name She & Him next week called `Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?` on November 17th through Double Six Records.
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Not to be outdone by Scarlett Johansson (good) and Juliette Lewis (awful) in the film stars as indie chicks stakes, Almost Famous and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy star Zooey Deschanel has teamed up with M. Ward for a brand new collaboration named, aptly, She & Him.
The pair first met to record a version of Richard and Linda Thompson's 'When I Get to the Border' for a movie soundtrack in 2006 and found an instant rapport, heightened when Zooey admitted to writing her own songs. Eevntually persuaded to send them on to M, the pair recorded their first album 'Volume One' during several breaks between acting work.
With nine original tracks and covers of Ronnie Spector's 'I Wa s Made For You' and The Beatles' 'I Should Have Known Better', the album has already drawn comparisons to Dusty Springfield, Linda Ronstadt and The Zombies while the pair recently performed on the Conan O'Brien show in America.
'Volume One' is released in the UK by Double Six on July 14th, preceded by the single 'This Is Not A Test' on the 7th.
She & Him - 'Volume One'
1. 'Sentimental Heart'
2. 'Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?'
3. 'This Is Not A Test'
4. 'Change Is Hard'
5. 'I Thought I Saw Your Face Today'
6. 'Take It Back'
7. 'I Was Made For You'
8, 'You Really Got A Hold On Me'
9. 'Black Hole'
10. 'Got Me'
11. 'I Should Have Known Better'
12. 'Sweet Darlin'
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Film stars making records...ooh, it's a dodgy business. For every Scarlett Johansson, whose Jesus & Mary Chain debuts and album in her own right are suitably palatable, there's a Juliette Lewis, desperately trying and failing to sound like The Strokes if they'd been fronted by a lo-fi Joan Jett. So, it's the turn of Zooey Deschanel, perhaps best known in the UK for her turns in Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy and Almost Famous, as she teams up with acoustic songsmith M Ward.
What we get is a track with a hint of The Carpenters, a dash of Dolly Parton and a certain timelessness. There's also a touch of 'organic mouth trumpet', which is never as good an idea as it originally seems. Looks like they've passed the test though, now let's see if they graduate with the forthcoming album.
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
