Friday 8 October 2010

95 Minutes of Argh!

500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009)

When: Late September

Where:At Home on one of the Sky Movie Channels

There's something very off about this film, but I can decide what it is. Is it uncomfortably real, a play by play re-enactment of a bitter man or is it complete fantasy. Either way the 95 minutes of pain took me back about 10 years or so. Back then this was the film I wanted to make, perhaps even a little further back, but then back then I was only just starting my addiction. I suppose it's not so hard to empathise with a love struck but cowardly obsessive... anyway, moving on. The film starts like a good old fashioned comedy with a what seems amusing credit:

At the beginning of the film, before the title, a disclaimer states:
"AUTHOR'S NOTE: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Especially you Jenny Beckman.

Bitch."

However, the specific nature of detail in the film actually scared me a little. From the repeated use of the colour blue, the Zac Braff style fantasies, the music choices and references it felt like there was something going on. Should this have been a call for celebration, or was it just a perfect re-enactment of the our main man and his neurosis. My remaining memory of this film was that if I was 19 years old or younger this was the film I always wanted to make. After that I grew up and got on with it and stopped the whinging. Anyway, enough was enough and I was happy when this movie was over.

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