500 (Days of Summer)

As the narrator tells the audience, this is a story about boy meets girl. But you are mistaken if you think this is a story about love. Now we all know the rom-com formula, so say it with me: Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl breaks up with boy, boy and girl make up. Yay. Happy ending. And you find these aspects in (500) Days of Summer, and it certainly does fall under this category, but if I were ever to suggest a rom-com to one of my fellow brethrens, this would be the one (well, maybe Midnight in Paris, but that's not truly a rom-com either). The point is that if you didn't know better, a quick check on IMDB for a summary of the film would make it sound forgettable, but I am here to tell you that there is a bunch worth watching.

Right from the start the film sets the quirkier tone of the humor to play out. And not only is it pretty darn rootin' tootin' funny to me, but the overall clever framework and setups have a broad paint stroke on who it will appeal to. To get the basis down, the film jumps back and forth through the 500 days, and it quickly shows the breakup around day 290. Well, if it just skipped to step #3 of the 4 in rom-coms, why should we bother watching the entire film?

Now I could be cheesy and say, “Oh, but the story of how they fell in love is worth the watch!” Now that wouldn't want you to watch it, me to watch it, or really anybody who has a better way to spend an hour and a half. Luckily, as the narrator suggested, that's not the point of the film. Yes there's solid chemistry between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel (even if she plays the same carefree, do whatever she wants type of girl in every film), but really the money hits the mark in a couple of standout scenes. I'm talking about the dance number and the expectations vs. reality. And you may have no idea what I'm referring to if you haven't watched the film, and that's okay. All I'm trying to say is that there is actually a script here that takes a story told a thousand times and projects it in multiple appealing ways.

From beginning till end, you will be watching the film happily instead of either taking a nap and pretending to have cared about the past hour or preparing the tissues and triple chocolate ice cream. It's an enjoyable film with a good soundtrack-- not much more you can ask.

I might decide for next week to throw it back to Quentin Tarantino's early days. There's a whole bunch you can discuss with that guy, so I might as well start somewhere.  

Love & Mercy & Beach Boys

It's time to kick off the summer of reviews! And what better way to do so than with Beach Boys? And so we begin with Love & Mercy, with Paul Dano and John Cusack portraying Brian Wilson in his younger and middle years respectively. I have been a fan of Dano ever since I saw his haunting acting in Prisoners, and he has worked his way up in movies such as 12 Years a Slave. And boy does he shine through here. Not only does he look and act the part, he also sounds the part. And when doing a musical biopic, sounding the part is pretty important and impressive.

Now I am a casual Beach Boys fan and really didn't look into their career before this film, but there is really a story to behold. The Dano years of the 60s experiments with LSD and all the typical band stuff from that decade, and it shows the complex mindset of the spontaneous and wonderful mind of Brian Wilson. And you get plenty of good vibrations because you get to listen to a lot of great songs.

Go forward a couple of decades to the slightly eccentric Cusack who buys a car from the beautiful Elizabeth Banks who switches up from her usual comedic roles to be a more serious, “good” character without too much depth (she's not the focus, but is a driving force and provides romantic connections). Gradually, as she dates the divorced Wilson, she discovers the manipulative therapist Paul Giamatti who has kept Wilson away from all of his family for a solid 2 years at least.

These scenes switch back and forth, and it is a solid dynamic to keep the interest fresh for what might be off-putting to some when they hear “biopic.” You will be engaged and committed, especially if you're like me and are unfamiliar with Wilson's life, but you will also see some missed potential. At just over 2 hours, not all scenes hit the mark and tiptoe through the area marked fluff. There isn't always the intensity wanted in the Cusack scenes, so the powerful moments are toned down just a bit. But, then again, hearing Paul Giamatti yell “SLUT!” over and over can't be all bad.

Generally speaking, the Dano scenes are better and what I continued to look forward to in the movie. He does the best acting, and watching his methods to find the perfect melodies while his domestic life has its struggles is engrossing and worth the watch. And again, listening to the formulation of the songs is a big treat.

There isn't much to boast about directing, but the incredible performance by Dano and the more suppressed and gloomy Cusack are attention-grabbing enough if for some reason Beach Boys wasn't. Ultimately, you'll come away with new appreciation and curiosity about the band that was briefly even more popular than The Beatles, and that is always a success in the mind of a filmmaker.

Tomorrow, we continue happy sunshiney times of summer with a genre that can be loved and hated. All I know is that it will be totally rad dude.