(500) Days of Summer: Fairytales for Macs

It was ironic that during the trailers for (500) Days of Summer, the latest Jennifer Aniston movie was foisted upon us.

As Hollywood romantic comedies go, this must have sounded wonderful on paper: let's get Jennifer Aniston, put her in Seattle, make her a small business owner who meets a rich guy and teaches him the importance of the immaterial (love!), then name it 'Love Happens', which I can only assume is a cross between 'Love Actually' and 'Shit Happens'.

For Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zoey Deschanel however, in (500) Days of Summer; life happens. Unlike Aniston's future pablum, '(500) Days' explores the ambiguity and often, irrationality of emotions and relationships, particularly in hindsight. A refreshingly grey take on the rom-com, the film so overtly channels 'The Graduate' that Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross actually play a pivotal role in the plot.

Deschanel plays the titular Summer, with whom Gordon-Levitt (as Tom) meets, greets, loves and learns in the span of 500 days. Most people in life experience love more than once, but it's rare to see a movie about those multitude of relationships that start with a bang, only to end with a fizzle. '(500) Days' takes the audience asymmetrically through just one of those relationships, with both Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt playing their pseudo-hipster roles to a tee. Ever the idiosyncratic leading man, Gordon-Levitt in particular puts forth an emotional roller coaster performance, providing a decidedly subjective backbone to much of the film.

Marking the directorial debut of music video veteran Marc Webb, '(500) Days' is a slick, stylish film that captures the city of Los Angeles with an intimacy few have ever achieved. Although Webb leans heavily on some of his past experience (watch the video for Maroon 5's 'Goodnight Goodnight' after this movie), the romance unravels on screen -- literally and figuratively -- with aplomb. The architectural cinematography, unique shots and seasonal colour palates wielded by Webb et al help layout a sprawling, time bending story with such simplicity that even Christopher Nolan would be proud.

It would be a shame also not to mention the splendid soundtrack, again harkening back to Webb's background. Tunes from The Smiths and Regina Spektor perfectly serenade romance's foibles at every turn, diegetically entrenching themselves in the story as much as music does in our own real life relationships.

For those who are romantics however, let it be known that there is little real gloom and doom here. Despite sounding like a downer, witty banter and laughs are easy to come by during the film's brief 95 minutes. Moreover, although we are warned this is not a love story, it is undoubtedly one full of love -- particularly the ending, which essentially asks why we should bother at all?

Regardless of how you interpret the finale, much like 'The Graduate', '(500) Days of Summer' will ensure you enjoy making that decision.

Because, you know. You need to know.

One advantage of free time is I get to catch up on books, movies and music that I wouldn't otherwise have sought out and engaged. Here's some interesting items out now or coming out soon:

District 9

From Peter Jackson, the visual effects in this look absolutely amazing. And not only is it about aliens, but aliens in mechas. That's like putting a twinkie inside a joe louis. How can you resist?

Daybreakers

Vampire is the new teenage-wizard, dontcha know? Also, I can't help expecting a velociraptor to jump out during any scene, in any movie, that Sam Neill is in. Still, I am intrigued by this seeming genre mashup. The trailer is pretty amazing. Also, I love Kate Bush so much that even Placebo sounds good covering her. Brownie points.

The Hurt Locker

This is supposedly the war movie of the decade. I will watch it soon, as it's out already. This I swear. The tension is pretty clearly jacked up big time from what you see in the trailer. Reviews pouring in have been nothing short of stellar.

500 Days of Summer

This actually looks pretty contrived (The Smiths? And you work in a loft studio? Ok). But I tend to enjoy mildly emo hipster rom-coms (see: State, Garden; Kiss, Last; Real Girl, Lars). Where do I sign up for my hipster-douchebag tshirt?

Albums I am eager to hear:

Ohbijou - Beacons

The Most Serene Republic - ...and the ever expanding universe

Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue

I've been listening to a lot of upbeat summer music lately. Drake, Passion Pit, Au Revoir Simone, and some Bjork to put myself in vacation mood. Suggestions welcome.

Currently reading:

Fifth Business - Robertson Davies

Next Up:

TBA. Suggestions?

I just finished 'Omnivore's Dilemma' prior to my bi-monthly Canlit fix. It was interesting, definitely, but I feel you'd almost be equally educated by just going to watch FOOD Inc. It's essentially... the movie version, of that book. With some 'Fast Food Nation' thrown in. Also, I feel guilty about everything I eat now. Thanks, Michael Pollan.

Alright. It's a babe off.

Chi-Chi...

I watched two horrible movies this week. Each featured a hot asian (mostly) girl who made the stupidity bearable, if not even somewhat enjoyable. If that makes me a sadist (or a pervert), so be it. What's really sad however is that both these girls were playing cartoon characters. I'm not sure exactly what that says about me, but I'm sure there's some sort of deep rooted symbolism there. It's probably not that deeply rooted, actually.

...or Chun-Li...

I must say that this is a tougher call than it looked on paper. I mean, Kristen Kreuk is so pretty. But Jamie Chung I would say has the nicer body. Less lithe and classical, but curvy Asian girls always get bonus points from me. KK is Canadian though, which is also a plus. But Jamie Chung is Korean, which I also approve of. Tough call.

I can't decide. I'll just bask in the presence of both, while at once thanking them for playing Japanese cartoon characters in horrendous hollywood films, and ignoring the fact they just set Asian actresses back at least five years.

For every step forward, two steps back. Somewhere, Maggie Cheung is cursing these two.

While I'm objectifying women, shout out to Grace Park. Hope you make it back to hottie relevance soon.

Literature and romance. But no Zombies.

This is the part of the movie where I laughed out loud in the theatre, and Irene slapped me.

There's this part in the movie Stranger Than Fiction where Dustan Hoffman is explaining the classical romance of literature, where the main protagonists usually start off hating each other before they slowly (or via an epiphany) fall in love.

I suppose in theory this makes sense. I mean, hate and love are, when distilled, just two variations (symptoms?) of intense passion. So perhaps it's rational that somebody you have strong enough feelings for to drive you insane, naturally might also be someone that has the ability to... well, drive you insane. In a good way.

This is an interesting theory. I don't currently subscribe to any such sort of axiom in real life, but for the most part because I haven't ever seen it happen, or even heard of it happening, in reality.

It's common in books, movies, television and theatre, but where did this idea come from anyways? How did the romantic ideal come to be that two individuals who hate each other might eventually (and fatefully) be meant to be together?

It just seems so practically implausible. Is that the whole point? Is the artistic idea of romance simply achieving what we perceive to be impossible?

Seriously, does anyone have an example they might be able to cite of this occurring in real life? I am very, very curious as to the frequency of this strange, rare (yet somehow cliched) happenstance.

Moreover, I've never hated anybody before. I'm not entirely sure I'm capable of hating someone, unless they were say, some sort of monstrous criminal who refused to apologize for his/her crimes.

But I am equally sure I wouldn't fall in love with them.

Discerning tastes

There's a great line by Chuck Klosterman when talking about pornography, where he wonders why it is attractive to see a girl get shot all over the face with sea-monkeys. He equates it to slapping her in the face with a fry pan.

Clearly, he is of the minority, since almost every pornographic film scene ends with the same money shot. Heck, even Kobe Bryant testified in his rape case that he enjoys it. "It's my thing," he told Colorado police officers when discussing details of his unfortunate affair. Right. And I patented the question mark.

I suppose pornography isn't a topic I discuss often, but I'm really intrigued by Steven Soderbergh's new movie "The Girlfriend Experience", which stars (in)famous porn starlet Sasha Grey.

For starters, it's a real life jump for a porn actor to legitimate acting. And, yes, I realize it's a stretch (no pun intended! eww....) to say a porn star is acting when her role is "call girl", but whatever. If Keanu Reeves is an actor, then we should at the very least acquiesce for Miss Grey as well. This is uncommon, and Soderbergh is a big time director. I'm sold.

Second, a quote from a recent Guardian article about the movie really got me thinking:

"With Sasha, you can within seconds see her do anything you can imagine with her clothes off," Soderbergh acknowledges. "What you can't see is what it's like to be her boyfriend, to hang out with her and be emotionally intimate with her. So my whole theory is that's the fantasy for those who've been double-clicking – that they want to spend 77 minutes being her boyfriend."

I find myself these days not particularly interested in pornography. Sure, send in the gay jokes, but through the years, I've found that whenever I see a porn scene or a television show about porn stars, I am more curious about the sociological commentary and semiotic relevance of the whole construct.

These women are an enigma, no? In this month's Rolling Stone, there is a feature on Sasha Grey. She is an intelligent girl, and argues that her actions are an empowering form of feminism. She points out that if equality, rights and freedom is manifested in the right to make choices, then shouldn't all choices be respected regardless of society's hollow moral pillars? Isn't telling her not to be a porn star actually an act of misogyny?

But really? Does Sodenbergh believe that internet porn surfers fantasize about emotionally connecting with Sasha Grey? That they want to argue about what movie to rent, where to eat dinner and whether it's time to move on to the next level?

Do consumers of porn consider actors to be real people?

I'm not sure. Frankly, I don't even fully believe as a whole, society extends that much empathy to normal celebrities. They are spectacles for our amusement and consumption, not vessels for our emotional plight.

So is porn really empowering then? If most of the people watching you being disrespected and degraded are willing to gloss over that fact to see you get hit in the face with a fry pan, does that really give a woman a sense of autonomy and self-respect?

I don't have answers. But I think the porn industry is one of those facets and products of our sexual behavior that has a lot to say about our society. We just never really think about it any deeper than the superficial.

Which is only fitting, I suppose, if not somewhat ironic in how absolutely non-ironic it is.

Of note: this movie isn't even about porn. But it deals with many of the same issues, in a more thought provoking way; which are all those issues we almost never want to deal with.

Here's the trailer.

Wow

He's just not that into you is a regrettable movie.

Is it unfortunate that it makes fun of female cliches then ends the movie by reenforcing them?

I like that in general, the males are accurately portrayed. But I find it hard to believe women are nearly as dumb as the movie makes them out to be. Who literally paces a room waiting for a dude to call her? Do sane human beings actually do this? Least yet 30 year old professionals?

Either the movie is borderline degrading and just set another generation up for unexpected teen pregnancy, or my parents did an amazing job in raising me to respect chicks.

Or both.

Toaster Origins

I just watched the two-hour Caprica movie, a pilot/new spin-off series from the makers of Battlestar Galactica.

Not wanting to spoil anything, I will simply say that although it is much more drama than sci-fi, it certainly retains the pathos of BSG, down to the grittiness (sometimes a forced grittiness. I mean, it's filmed in Vancouver.) as well as heaps of spiritual and moral ambiguity. Also, there are some robots and science and yadda yadda, but these shows have never really been about that.

Suffice to say, it was entertaining, particularly because it really does delve deeply into the BSG backstory, and provides revealing and intriguing complexities to fans about the show's mythology. I know that somewhere the makers said it wasn't directly tied to BSG, and I suppose technically it isn't; but I am almost certain that the mere shared idiosyncrasies that go into making it an authentic prequel will attract many, many BSG fans. I'll probably end up watching it for mainly those reasons -- it's fairly interesting.

On an unrelated note, at one point in the movie, a question is asked in the middle of a conversation and the reply is preceded with a long-winded contextual story. I know this is a common narrative tool, but I am trying to figure out when (if?) any human being ever actually talks like this in real life.

For example, if somebody asked you "If you could have any super power, which would you choose?" I'd imagine the majority surveyed would pause, think, then simply say "[insert power] because [insert rationale]". This is how normal people think right?

But not in entertainment land.

In a script, that same question is answered like this:

Person 1: "What super power would you have?"

Person 2: "You know, once when I was eight years old, my parents used to have this old shotgun that they kept at the top of their closet -- you know, for protection and such. They must have figured that I couldn't reach that high, or didn't know about it, or hell, they might have even forgot they had it.

I was climbing up their bookshelf one day when they were outside gardening, and I saw the barrel just peeking out from across the room. I pushed a chair over and managed to get it down from the rack... it was the first time I ever held a gun. I could barely hold the thing straight... somehow, I managed to sneak it outside, and I started to just pretend shoot things, like I was the coolest kid in the world you know? Just pointing it at birds and... thinking bang. bang. bang. Cars flying by on the road. Eventually I couldn't help myself. The curiosity was killing me. I aimed straight at this bird perched on one of the fence posts near our house, it couldn't have been more than 10 feet away. And I pulled the trigger -- I remember it being so hard to pull.

That bird just exploded. It went up in a ball of feathers, and the blast kicked back and almost took my shoulder off. I remember my parents running around the corner of the house, their eyes so wide open screaming what was going on... I could see them, and their mouths were moving, but my ears were just ringing from the blast. It was so loud, I didn't even know where I was for a little bit... and I remember looking at the pile of feathers... in shock... I mean, I didn't know it was loaded. I mean, I might have. But I guess I didn't really think about what was going to happen. All I could think was... that I killed that bird. That something so gentle, that was just flying around minutes ago... and I turned it into nothing but a pile of blood and feathers. I did that. I took it off this earth forever.

Ever since then, I've wanted the ability to turn back time. Just... for the chance to make up for our sins. I know it's not logical, or rational but... that's just what I've always wanted.

Yea, I've never answered a question like that.

But think about it. In entertainment world, this type of answer occurs all the time. And for some reason, in Caprica, I noticed it very distinctly. And if you can't tell, it kind of annoyed me.

Man, that was a lot of writing to make a simple point. IRONY!

White Castle or bust

You know how often, actors who take certain roles become pigeonholed for the rest of their careers? Say, for example, Shannon Elizabeth, or Chris Klein?

At first, it seemed that the main characters from Harold & Kumar were destined for the slapstick comedy hall-of-fame. More teen movies. More silly dick jokes. And good grief, they were both minorities! Surely these roles were not going to lead to real acting careers.

Except... somehow, for some reason, White Castle managed to launch (or in one case, re-launch) three careers into pretty much unheard of trajectories since Jon Stewart went from Half-Baked to Fake News Cultural Icon.

Let's run things down.

Neil Patrick Harris began the comeback with White Castle, and turned it into a successful and regular gig on one of TV's most popular sitcoms. He also was part of a cult-hit Josh Whedon smash musical, and has gone from obscure, retro-pop-culture reference to one of the few celebrities who are famous essentially for being themselves.

John Cho is probably the least famous, and asides from small movies did mainly guest-spot tv work since the last Harold and Kumar gig. However, this summer he managed to snag an almost assuredly recurring role in the most popular franchise reboot in movie history. Star Trek is going to be a monster. Mark my words. He's going to be rolling in cash from this one role alone (he's Sulu). Pretty good for a dude who didn't even really want a hamburger in the first place.

Finally, Mr. Kal Penn. Yea, he did some TV. And of course, he landed a regular gig on House. But the dude just left the show (with a bang!) to accept a position in the Obama Administration. His official title is Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Liaison. I almost feel like this is on par with making the leap from Porn Star to legitimate actor. Has that ever truly been done? And I mean hardcore porn, not that Red Shoe David Duchovny softie stuff.

It's just strange how these things work out. Did anybody see this coming after watching White Castle? I mean, the tagline on the movie poster is "FROM THE DIRECTOR OF DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR?"

Crazy.