500 Days of Summer - Parody with Joseph Gordon-levitt and Zooey deschanel
On Youtube :D
Lol I was watching Star Trek yday so this is appropriate
Clip joint: Manic Pixie Dream Girls
Posted by Dominic Kelly, guardian.co.ukShe’s carefree, quirky and criminally underwritten – say hello to some of cinema’s most notable MPDG offenders
This week’s clip joint is by Dominic Kelly, who blogs at somewhereimnot.wordpress.com.
Manic Pixie Dream Girls (MPDGs), a…
“…Let’s be honest, roles played by Zooey Deschanel could fill this entire list; her parts in Yes Man, Elf and New Girl are also prime offenders. But her role as Summer may be the quintessential MPDG. As well as being bubbly and impossibly impulsive, Summer incorporates another recurring characteristic: she ” has issues”. However, instead of the writer dealing with these and developing her as a character and a distinct voice, they are fetishised as some kind of edgy streak to make her an even more appealing, unattainable muse for the nuanced, alternative male.”
But wasn’t that the point? We are seeing Summer through Tom’s eyes, and to him, this is what she is. HE doesn’t see her as the complex and nuanced human being that she is, but rather as his fantasy dream girl. This is why he is so hung up on her throughout the course of the film and why he can’t seem to understand any of her motives or desires. Summer is depicted as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl for a deliberate reason, and I don’t think this particlar example is just “lazy screenwriting.”
I agree. In fact, I think anyone who thinks that Summer was a typical sexist MPDG trope has in fact missed the entire point of the movie.
Tom? Yeah, was a typical Nice Guy (TM). He wanted Summer and when he couldn’t have her in the way he wanted, suddenly she was a “whore” and he hated everything about her. Tom wasn’t the victim here.
People who claim that Summer was just a male wish-fulfillment trope make me think that they watched a different movie. Summer did what she wanted to do. She was clear from the start that she wasn’t looking for anything serious with Tom and that she wasn’t going to be his “muse.” She was her own person and he couldn’t accept that.
It irks me that a lot of people miss the entire point of this movie.
ETA: And just check out some of the comments:
23I HATED 500 days of summer! I can see why JGL’s character would have been interested in Deschanel’s character initially, based on looks, but as soon as he discovered what an enormously self absorbed and annoying cow she was, he’d have run a mile. After 500 days he’d have throttled her.
Sexism what?
Side note it really bothers me when people think that “Fuck you, whore” line is hilarious/cute
I do find it really fascinating that so many people do what Tom does with Summer by judging Tom very shallowly and thinking he’d be the perfect boyfriend, and get mad at Summer for “what she did to Tom.” I’ve said before, it’s a useful exercise to mentally recast Tom as someone you can’t stand and then see if you love Tom so much. And I’m saying that as someone who has mixed feelings about both characters on repeated viewings. Neither of them is all good or all bad.
Good point there. Or even reverse the roles. Make the woman the pursuer who won’t give him up when he wants to be with someone else and watch how fast she becomes a “clingy psycho bitch.”
We really can’t tell if Summer has any real positive or negative qualities, however, since the whole thing is through the filter of Tom’s perception. When he is with her, she’s perfect. When she leaves him, he hates everything about her. There really is no “Summer” for us to understand outside of the film.
Also, the thing is Tom clearly became a better person by the end of the film because of his experience with Summer. I always saw it less as a relationship movie and more of a “finding yourself” movie, with the relationship being the catalyst. Being able to change from this selfish, stagnant guy to someone who’s actually willing to make his own future instead of just letting things happen to him is a positive change. People generally have to go through some major hurt and the realization that actually you yourself are responsible for the hurt to get to that point. So it’s a good thing.
And, yeah, if Summer had said initially, “Oh I love you and I want to be with you forever” and then up and dumped Tom, then I can see how people would call her a bitch. But saying, “I don’t want a serious relationship with you, I just think you’re fun to hang out with and like to have sex with you also sometimes” and then actually doing that just makes her straight-forward and honest.
Basically,
Tom - “I like you. You’re pretty cool, but I really wish you were like THIS”
Summer - “I like you too, and thanks, but I’m not going to be like THIS”
Tom - “Well, I still like you and I think I can convince you to be like THIS if we spend enough time together”
Summer - “I’m getting tired of you trying to make me into THIS. Goodbye”
Tom - “Bitch”
Everyone watching - “Wow, what a bitch!”
HUH?
YES TO THAT DIALOGUE EXACTLY.
Though I’m not convinced that Tom has learned anything. Maybe if the second girl had been named “Emily” or “Brenda” or something like that. But the fact that she was “Autumn” and it starts again at “Day 1” just made me think “Oh god, here we go again.”
Although it was good that he was focusing on building an attainable dream that he was responsible for (his work.) So there was that, at least.
dancingdirtroads asked: Lol just as you posted that I was editing mine to add the "nice guy" thing. Tom is a such a little shit and THAT is what the movie's about.
YES, exactly. And it just goes to show you that if Hollywood portrays a cute, white dude in any light at all, people will still refuse to see his flaws. I can’t get over how people keep blaming Summer and calling her a “bitch” and a “cow” and other insulting things, when she did nothing wrong and the story was to illustrate his destructive fantasy. The writers got it, JGL got it. But most of the public missed the entire point.
Clip joint: Manic Pixie Dream Girls
Posted by Dominic Kelly, guardian.co.ukShe’s carefree, quirky and criminally underwritten – say hello to some of cinema’s most notable MPDG offenders
This week’s clip joint is by Dominic Kelly, who blogs at somewhereimnot.wordpress.com.
Manic Pixie Dream Girls (MPDGs), a…
“…Let’s be honest, roles played by Zooey Deschanel could fill this entire list; her parts in Yes Man, Elf and New Girl are also prime offenders. But her role as Summer may be the quintessential MPDG. As well as being bubbly and impossibly impulsive, Summer incorporates another recurring characteristic: she ” has issues”. However, instead of the writer dealing with these and developing her as a character and a distinct voice, they are fetishised as some kind of edgy streak to make her an even more appealing, unattainable muse for the nuanced, alternative male.”
But wasn’t that the point? We are seeing Summer through Tom’s eyes, and to him, this is what she is. HE doesn’t see her as the complex and nuanced human being that she is, but rather as his fantasy dream girl. This is why he is so hung up on her throughout the course of the film and why he can’t seem to understand any of her motives or desires. Summer is depicted as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl for a deliberate reason, and I don’t think this particlar example is just “lazy screenwriting.”
I agree. In fact, I think anyone who thinks that Summer was a typical sexist MPDG trope has in fact missed the entire point of the movie.
Tom? Yeah, was a typical Nice Guy (TM). He wanted Summer and when he couldn’t have her in the way he wanted, suddenly she was a “whore” and he hated everything about her. Tom wasn’t the victim here.
People who claim that Summer was just a male wish-fulfillment trope make me think that they watched a different movie. Summer did what she wanted to do. She was clear from the start that she wasn’t looking for anything serious with Tom and that she wasn’t going to be his “muse.” She was her own person and he couldn’t accept that.
It irks me that a lot of people miss the entire point of this movie.
ETA: And just check out some of the comments:
23I HATED 500 days of summer! I can see why JGL’s character would have been interested in Deschanel’s character initially, based on looks, but as soon as he discovered what an enormously self absorbed and annoying cow she was, he’d have run a mile. After 500 days he’d have throttled her.
Sexism what?
GOD, why do I go into tags? I just found the most ignorant write-up of 500 Days Of Summer that I’ve seen, like, anywhere. It’s like “Oh, Tom was treated SO POORLY” and then a list of all the things that this person learned from the movie. Such as, “Pretty girls can treat you like crap AND GET AWAY WITH IT” and “fight to keep her” and, oh my god, “There are only two kinds of people in the world, men and women.”
I mean…WHAT? Did we watch the same movie? Dude, even Joe was basically like “OMG Tom was a dick, his feels are so unhealthy.” Not in so many words. But just, yeah, WOW.
- the actual moral of 500 Days of Summer: you shouldn't use the fact that you think you're a nice guy as an excuse to project your fantasies onto women who don't return your feelings. If she says she doesn't want a relationship, then listen and accept this.
- what most dudes take from 500 Days of Summer: any woman who doesn't want to date me is a bitch. It's a fact; they even made a movie about it.
How does that quote I posted where JGL talks about 500 Days Of Summer have 86 thousand notes? I mean, he was totally right but holy damn, I say much cooler things than that every day.
So yesterday I posted that quote that Joseph Gordon-Levitt said about 500 Days of Summer, and the selfishness of his character and how unhealthy it was to have that idealized version of someone in your head. It got reblogged over 60 thousand times. Which is great! Because what he said was true, and I’m so happy when people see the point of that film.
But a lot of the comments on those reblogs are stuff like “This is why JGL is perfect!” and “This just makes me fall in love with him more!” and stuff like that.
But I mean, isn’t that doing the same exact thing that Tom did in 500 Days of Summer? Idealizing someone like that?
(This post is not going to get 60 thousand reblogs. ;D )
Because people just miss the point. They don’t read the actual quote. They don’t actually think about what he’s saying. All they know is that he’s saying something and that it makes him sound good. Because since that was a quote from the Playboy interview, there’s another quote from it that basically sums up EXACTLY what those fans were doing:
“I’ve learned I have basically two different interactions with people. I love when someone approaches me and tells me they’ve seen me in something that made them feel something and that they connected to it. That’s part of why I do it. The other interaction is with people who really don’t care about the movies or anything like that. They just sort of buy into the fame thing, and that feels icky to me.”
I mean, we all know what JGL thinks of celebrity. I know I’ve talked about more times than needed (seriously, I should probably shut up about it already). But the fact of the matter is that as long as he does interviews, and as long as he’s acting in big-name movies, there’s going to be less focus on what JGL is actually saying and more on the fact that he’s just talking and acting and generally being good looking in photoshoots.
You spit the truth.
And to an extent, I really do get it! When I was 14, Jon Bon Jovi could do no wrong. Everything he said was awesome, no matter what it was. That’s part of the fun of having a crush, I think. And, I really don’t know how old some of those people are. Joe also mentioned that this is true for a lot of younger people, and he’s right. It’s something you grow out of, hopefully.
But out of the 60, maybe now almost 70K people who reblogged that, I’ll bet you that a lot of them never really looked at the movie that way, and now they have. And now they’re aware of the Nice Guy Syndrome (“OMG this chick is so awesome and I want her, she’s so wonderful and perfect and I can be the perfect man for her because I’m a great guy and and so nice and… She doesn’t want me? That BITCH, that WHORE.”) because THAT IS A REAL THING. Because that happens to us all the damn time and it is frustrating, so frustrating to be seen as a prospect and not a human being.
So, while I was kind of O_O at seeing so many people put JGL on that pedestal, the exact opposite of the point he was making, hey, I’ll bet a lot of people actually got the point, too. :)
So yesterday I posted that quote that Joseph Gordon-Levitt said about 500 Days of Summer, and the selfishness of his character and how unhealthy it was to have that idealized version of someone in your head. It got reblogged over 60 thousand times. Which is great! Because what he said was true, and I’m so happy when people see the point of that film.
But a lot of the comments on those reblogs are stuff like “This is why JGL is perfect!” and “This just makes me fall in love with him more!” and stuff like that.
But I mean, isn’t that doing the same exact thing that Tom did in 500 Days of Summer? Idealizing someone like that?
(This post is not going to get 60 thousand reblogs. ;D )
The (500) Days of Summer attitude of “He wants you so bad” seems attractive to some women and men, especially younger ones, but I would encourage anyone who has a crush on my character to watch it again and examine how selfish he is. He develops a mildly delusional obsession over a girl onto whom he projects all these fantasies. He thinks she’ll give his life meaning because he doesn’t care about much else going on in his life. A lot of boys and girls think their lives will have meaning if they find a partner who wants nothing else in life but them. That’s not healthy. That’s falling in love with the idea of a person, not the actual person.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (x)
Ugh, I’m sorry to double post with two quotes, but he’s dropping another truth bomb here. I hate when people misinterpret 500DOS and think of Summer as some kind of bitch, or, alternately, as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. That’s only how his character saw her. To me, this movie was basically about Nice Guy Syndrome: A guy who thinks he’s just so nice that he’s entitled to the woman he wants, and when she decides she doesn’t want him back, she becomes a bitch, or a whore.
It was a widely misinterpreted movie, I think. Well, people tend to say, “Why didn’t she end up with him? He was so nice!” But I think that he was really quite guilty of projecting a fantasy onto this girl that she didn’t necessarily deserve, and that, honestly, he was pretty wrapped up in his own selfish point of view. We’ve all been guilty of it. I’m sure I’ve done the same. And we all do it to one degree or another in every relationship. But it’s just funny to me, because I felt like the point of that movie was illuminating this guy who is basically delusional, who keeps projecting all these things onto this girl, and how that’s a problem for him, and how he then sort of grows out of it. But it seems like a lot of the people that see the movie don’t quite catch that. They just think he’s a great guy.
Which led to THIS GUY:
No seriously. I liked both movies a lot, but hey, you’re not entitled to people just because you want them. If that was the case, I’d actualfax be married to Ewan McGregor.
just watched this
tbf summers a bitch
Summer is realistic, not a bitch.
Tom’s also a jackass. People are like this. People are flawed. That is what makes this movie so moving, it’s like life. Fancy that.
Summer is not a bitch. Tom doesn’t listen to her. He holds her to this impossible standard and views her as what he wants to see her as, not as who she really is. She’s up-front and clear with him from the get-go, and he chooses to ignore it.
GDI this. Summer is NOT a bitch. Summer was up front with Tom from the beginning. She laid it out straight up, and he just refused to see it. Tom felt entitled to her love even though she told him repeatedly that she wasn’t in love with him, and when he didn’t get it, Summer was a “whore.”
Tom had Nice Guy Syndrome, and guess what? Even JGL himself said so.
I just love this video! Makes me want to dance. Also, this song is the story of my damn life.
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here - She and Him
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