(500) Days of Suck

[Nique]

I was originally going to post this on my Facebook page but my wife said it was too cynical to bother my RL friends with it. So here goes;

My Review of: (500) Days of Summer *Spoiler Warning*

Seriously hollywood writers, who cares about 20-something hipsters with posh-mean-nothing-pretend-movie-jobs that they can apparently quit at will with no consequences, living in lavish downtown L.A. apartments? I mean come on the guy could afford that apartment if he was an architect from the begginning, maybe? And he quit's what must be an AMAZINGLY easy and fun job writing greeting cards (note: I have doubts that this job actually exists as it is portrayed in the film anymore) becuase it's too fake and he is just angsting over life and the meaninglessness and inadequcy of words? And they watch french films?! UGH! So pretentious! I'm wondering how I even got through it now. BAH.

At first I thought it was going to be a quirky, unique movie, and THEN I thought it was just another typical lame romantic comedy that tried to market itself as a unique movie. And then it TURNED OUT to be a movie that tried to be unique and quirky and failed because what it was REALLY trying to do was be "hip" instead of original.

Zooey Deschanel is always adorable and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is really funny and extremely likeable, so I was ALMOST tricked into liking this movie. But when he quit his amazing job because he 'couldn't stand how phoney it was' I felt like I was reading 'Catcher in the Rye' all over again - and I hated that book.

And I really disliked that these young and notably white people didn't appear to be struggling financially at all. Because even though that wasn't what the movie was about, there was an opportunity for a richer backstory that was missed, and there is a certain subtext it implies about white people, privilege, and entitlement. I mean, we can assume that both of the main characters have debt from college that needs to be paid (Or do they? Do you know anyone who recently graduated with a degree that doesn't?) but that's never addressed at all. Instead we see them working easy jobs that they somehow did not require a relevant degree for, with what looks like LOADS of time off, living in awesome apartments and plenty of money to spend on leisure activities. I mean, that's pure fantasy. Which would be fine if the message of the film didn't seem to center around having REALISTIC expectations about life & romance.

It's ridiculous to watch these characters try to be convincing when the world we live in simply does not work this way, except for people who are extremely privileged. And honestly even that would have been ok if there was adequate context provided for it.