I recently took a literature elective on "film analysis" of which was led by one of those professors that believe it's a great idea for students to introduce themselves at the start of a course. Name, major, year, blah blah your-favorite-movie. The "What's your favorite..." series of questions always rubbed me the wrong way because I don't particular have strong opinions on much, but this one in particular was something I didn't have to sit and think about. But I have to admit, as a string was being strung through cult followers of friendly and nonfriendly self induced bloodshed, and action junkie jocks still wondering whether the totem top stopped or not, I couldn't help but feel as if I were going to be judged as the lonesome femme without hope of romantics when I spoke.
Granted, we were able to reason our choice with a few statements in addition to a mere title, but as I started to speak about Marc Webb's great tale of romantic moral and his ability to portray that as the physical nonsensical reality that it is...I lost my own tongue of sense and cut it short to a mere, "yeah, ya know, I liked his composition."
The thing is, despite it's poignant tagline, I don't think people really grasp the idea that (500) Days of Summer isn't a love story.
But I've been lucky enough to come across a couple who do. A couple of males at that. I'm pleasantly surprised whenever I learn a male appreciates the film, and he almost always does just as much as myself. And by "he," I mean A and B.
A, I'm almost disappointed to say, has probably watched it more times than I have. One of the first encounters where we spent more than mere minutes with each other we decided to watch the film we've already spoke so much about. But we ended up still speaking it. Literally. The scenes and script are so embedded in each of us by means of constant replay that we basically rehearsed the entire film ourselves. Well, no, not literally. That's disgusting. What's wrong with you? We played Tom and Summer for a couple of lines, laughed, and fell asleep. I can honestly say, that was the first night I felt completely comfortable "being me" with someone other than, well me. That is to say, it felt good to have a decent movie buddy for that strange period of life. (For indeed, you met me at a very strange time in my life.) |
However, I not surprisingly have had more (500) related conversations with B. Of whom I have yet to actually watch it with. I am often forced to assume that people don't really understand me when I ramble on about my favorite flick, but with B, I don't have to assume anything. Quite possibly the only person I might give my attention to when debating movies, we've just about the same thirst for them. One of the things I enjoyed most about our courtship was never feeling guilty about the age old question: "Wanna go see __________?" (Which is the common way for a girl to express, "Take me to see [some form of Twilight]!" or I suppose I should be talking in my case: "Hey, let's go see a movie." "Alright, what are we watching?" "Transformers 69! [or whatever it is boys are into these days]") What I'm trying to say is, before B, I never met anyone willing to take me to watch what I wanted to watch. Bonus I never had to feel guilty about enjoying whatever it is we watched because I know he more than likely did as well. And on top of all that, not only did I have someone to suggest the films I like to, but I also had suggestions to consider myself. First time I watched Audrey Hepburn? Well, let's just say I'm upset with myself for never giving that classic a chance past it's overly cliched pop-culture-dom before B.
Yes, there is a large number of people who adore (500) Days of Summer, an even greater number who enjoy another favorite of mine titled Inception, and generations whose obsession for Fight Club and Breakfast at Tiffany's sprouted well before mine, but being able to acknowledge that two have checked "Yes, I liked this film" is one thing, exploiting that with someone else can open up an entirely new dimension with them. (And it'll make things easier if some guy likes the same bizarro crap I do.) So this might be right up your alley ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, film lovers alike. Try not to take for granted the socially common things that seem seldom to be done for others like myself. This is number twenty-one.
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| "But those people are looking at life the wrong way. I mean, things don't need to last forever to be perfect." -Daydream Nation (2010) |
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