Tag Archives: Zooey Deschanel

All the Real Girls (2003)

When it comes to storytelling (or songwriting for that matter) love is probably the most over-utilized jumping off point.  It’s to be expected.  So many of us spend so much of our time longing for it or working towards it or doing our best to maintain it.  The stakes of losing love are high enough as to almost necessitate injecting it into a story whenever you can.  It’s the most basic tale we can tell.  What has manifested then is a genre that uses love as a starting point while spending much more time exploring it’s minutiae.  And so, All the Real Girls.

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500 Days of Summer (2009)

I love Zooey Deschanel. I think she’s adorable and it’s a point of contention in my current relationship. I was thusly disappointed by the character she plays in 500 Days of Summer…no, not disappointed, that’s not right. I hated her character and I hated this movie. Here’s the long and short:

This film comes with the preface, “This is not a love story, but a story about love,” which really doesn’t mean anything at all. In love stories and stories about love we follow two people as they make their way through that universal gauntlet. They struggle with some sort of inner or outer dissonance, and hopefully, finally, find their way to one another and stroll into the sunset of love, prepared forever to face all problems as one. Or not. Whatever. 500 Days of Summer utilizes this introduction to avoid the necessity of a happy ending, or at least one you recognize. Which is fine, if it’s executed properly. Continue reading