Brandon at Random Reviews

There is no easy way to make some movies, or most movies for that matter. Not if you intend to make them good. You need the right story, cast, locations, music, moments, and overall feel. You have to relate to the characters, at least the main character and be able to put yourself in their shoes by way of a compelling narrative. This movie is not most romantic movies. This story feels more grounded in reality than the ones that fail to get it right.

Among an incredibly amazing cast, (500) Days of Summer is lead by the one and only Joseph Gordon-Levitt (JoGo) and he really brings home the whole concept put into motion for the viewers. Zooey Deschanel is of course, JoGo’s love interest and co-star, the titular “Summer”. I really hate to give away too much, so I fucking won’t, simple as that. There is spectacular narration in this film performed occasionally and not overbearingly by on Richard McGonagle of whom I only know because of IMDb, his name is not a household one, but I just want to praise his great work.

The movie explores a relationship between two people that is largely romantic. They go through some of the familiar motions, as well as some unfamiliar ones. We connect with what they have going on. We see something we like to think we’ve seen in ourselves in the past, in addition to the things we perhaps wish we could have seen. We also see a lot of what may or may not be familiar, and may be unpleasant but still definitely rings true.

The music featured in this movie is pretty great. We get The Smiths, Hall & Oates, Wolfmother, Simon & Garfunkel, among others. The songs really are woven in well with the film and help provide the right energy at every turn. So great.

Now, there is a lot of debate surrounding this movie’s events, or rather characters and their choices and rightfully so. I won’t tell you what those things are of course, but people say that Summer behaves in a way that is different from what she claims to want I guess. Which it’s like, yeah, she’s gotta be the first person to ever do that in history, right? And they say Tom (JoGo) doesn’t accept reality and wants to believe something that isn’t actually true to his feelings which also literally has clearly never happened before ever. To anyone. Even if you haven’t necessarily gone through things like what happens in this movie, it evokes real human emotions and reactions that can be very strong. Hence the frequent debates about things in this film.

This one is up there along with “When Harry Met Sally” and “About Time” for me as one of my favorite romantic-type movies. It’s just such a timeless classic for me. The performances from our leads as well as the supporting players make this movie as great as it is. I really recommend this one, even if you don’t like it, I think you’ll at the very least not regret the viewing. Available free with Amazon Prime Video. Or buy it. But check it out.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️