500 Days of Summer. You should know up front, this is not a negative review.

The Romantic Comedy. What fresh perspective can be placed upon this tired genre. What can I possibly say that brings new life to a cinematic movement that is as stale as the writing in most of the films themselves. How can a cinephile such as myself defend a trope of movies (all released this year) who's titles include: The Proposal, The Ugly Truth, New in Town, He's Just not That into You, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and Confessions of a Shopaholic? Fortunately for me there are Rom-Coms being made like, first time director, Marc Webb's 500 Days of Summer that transcends the stereotypes and provide their own perspectives on love and dating in the 00's.

The Podcast. A wonderful invention. Audio/video recordings, generally brief, that anyone can record and place online for the world to consume. It's like talk radio chopped into tiny pieces then injected with steroids. Unfortunately the podcast movement hasn't really taken off like the juggernaut it appeared it was going to be. There are however a number of successes. I am a subscriber to several. My most beloved is Filmspotting. A weekly film review podcast of a Chicago Public Radio show. Its hosts are Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson. The Filmspotting format is to review 1-2 movies currently in theaters. There is then a contest called Massacre Theater in which the hosts recite lines from films and listeners email in to win a DVD. Then there is a recap of what DVD's came out that week, then a quick announcement of monetary contributors to the show. At this point they usually review a film that is part of a marathon they are having that listeners are encouraged to follow. Marathon topics have included the works of classic directors, silent movies, foreign films, etc. Then the show is closed out with a weekly Top 5. The Top 5 generally ties in with a topic that has been discussed on the show.

Top 5 lists. Filmspotting has them, so did High Fidelity. Another great romantic comedy, and a major influence on 500 Days of Summer. Generally I agree with the Filmspotting guys takes on movies, even when they don't agree with each other. That is to say that I know what they are saying, but sometimes they can be completely wrong. Sadly, that is the case with their review of this great film. 500 Days is a story about a boy that meets girl of his dreams. There is only one problem, she doesn't believe in love and doesn't want to be any one's "girlfriend". They do spark a relationship, but after some time she ends it. He becomes depressed. But wait! They have a chance meeting on a train. Right as he was starting to get over her and now it looks like there might be the possibility they can make it work. That is before she shatters his life in a twist that I didn't see coming at all. He is reduced to ashes. Scratch that. He is reduced to ashes, then the ashes are soaked in urine. He is reduced to a gray gelatinous urine soaked blob. But as things go he begins to pull himself out of yet another funk and maybe this time things might go his way.

I normally don't provide a synopsis of movies, but to explain the comments made on Filmspotting, I thought a basic understand of the plot would be helpful. Adam, sometimes referred to as "Art House Adam", his negative comments centered around the movie being cliche.

Overly cute in its self reflectivity....It's really everything and the kitchen sink. ~ Adam Kempenarr

Matty, or "Mainstream Matty Ballgame", complaints were about the film being unoriginal and having too many unnecessary moments.

Too much filler and fluff....This is Benson humor. ~ Matty Robinson

It should be said that both Adam and Matty thought the film was good, just not great. What I like about Filmspotting is that no matter weather they are providing positive or negative reviews, it is the thought and manner they put into their critiques that set them apart. They rarely come out and say a film is "good or not good". Generally they will provide explanations of what they thought did or didn't work and why. With 500 Days they go on to make brilliant insights like...

It all pays off in a scene later where you get some insight to the true nature of their relationship, and you realize the the entire relationship has been built on a charade of cinema... Tom has been projecting all his fantasizes from movies onto her. ~ Adam Kempenarr

This is a sharp observation and possibly the reason I was sucked into this movie like it was a jet engine. The first time I saw it I almost had a panic attack in the theater. The emotions that Tom, played pitch perfect by Joseph Gordon Levitt, were emitting were so familiar. I thought I had exhausted and repressed all of those memories from a very similar relationship with my own "manic-pixie-dream girl". I decided to wait a few weeks and see it again to make sure my opinion wasn't based on familiarity. I was rewarded upon a second viewing. I begin to see deeper into the film and realize the careful construction Marc Webb used in order to pull those emotions from his audience without manipulating them. Perhaps it is more honest to say that the entire relationship is a manipulation. One where the hints and clues of what to come are displayed right in front of the viewers face. Webb disperses this info like a romantic-comedy version of The Usual Suspects.

Zooey Deschanel manages her finest performance to date. A sharply crafted anti-hero. A woman strong and vulnerable, sharp, witty, fiercely independent and tender. She was tasked with delivering the line "What I was never sure of with you". Her vocalizing this line pushed her just slightly ahead of the Wicked Witch of the West on my Top 5 All Time Villains List. But if her character, Summer, called tonight I would drop what I'm doing and run to her. Being a movie nerd I see the world at 24 frames per second. I quote movie lines all day long, most of my references come from films to the point that I drive most of my friends crazy. I am Tom.

500 Days of Summer is a nonlinear movie about the 500 days of a relationship. It is a movie about wanting something so bad that you try to make it into something it's not. It is a movie about how movies, music, and pop culture can skew our take reality. Am I miserable because I listen to Filmspotting, or do I listen to Filmspotting because I am miserable?