Must See Movie: (500) Days of Summer
Stream it on Max while you can.
A Story of Boy Meets Girl
“You should know upfront, this is not a love story.”
As we near the end of August, I cannot stop thinking about (500) Days of Summer (2009).
Fourteen years after our paths crossed, I love Summer. No, not the season. The (fictional) person. Summer Finn changed me, and I’ve been reflecting on why.
As a genre, I like rom-coms but I rarely see my experiences reflected on screen. These are films where a public declaration of love smooths over all interpersonal conflict. A kiss resolves an issue forever, and a crowd of onlookers cheers for smooching strangers — probably in an airport or something. These are stories from a world that broadly champions crude romanticism over the nuanced realities of relationships.
“The Boy, Tom Hanson, grew up believing that he’d never truly be happy until the day he met the one. The Girl, Summer Finn, did not share this belief.”
In Summer, I saw pieces of myself. In all my years of watching stories about love, she was the first person to say things that actually made sense.
Tom: I just... I need some consistency.
Summer: I know.
Tom: I need to know that you're not gonna wake up in the morning and feel differently.
Summer: And I can't give you that. Nobody can.
Summer may be fictional, but she’s the realest person I’ve seen within the “love story” “story about love” genre. She says what she means regardless of the pressures she is subjected to, and she means what she says even if it confounds expectations.
Director Marc Webb brings this non-linear story of life, love, and memory to the screen using an unconstrained mix of differing methods and styles of cinematic storytelling. Yet it remains cohesive, never allowing style to subsume substance. It’s a bold film that feels as self-assured as its titular character.
If you haven’t seen (500) Days of Summer, or if it’s been a while since you have, it is emphatically a movie worth watching.
Stream (500) Days of Summer on Max while you still can.
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See you next week, film freak.