(500) Days of Summer

Episode 133: 500 Days of Summer (2009)

Theme: Summer Movies Month
Hosts: Oz & Curtis

This week, Oz and Curtis wade hip-deep into the Indie Pool with 500 Days of Summer — the rom-com-that’s-not-a-rom-com blending Garden State × 30 Rock × Third Rock From the Sun × New Girl, all assembled at your local IKEA with an Allen wrench and a passive-aggressive instruction manual. It’s twee music, expectations vs. reality, Smiths references every seven minutes, and two lead characters who somehow manage to be both honest and emotionally exhausting.

The Movie Marriage: Garden State × 30 Rock × New Girl × IKEA Relationship Labrynth

The hosts break down:

• Tom Hansen — architect at heart, greeting-card writer by Indie decree, and the human embodiment of “Hey stupid, she told you exactly who she is.”
• Summer Finn — the Manic Pixie Dream Girl who keeps insisting she’s not your Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
• The 500-day structure — sweet, clever, occasionally smug storytelling that flips through a Rolodex of love, denial, karaoke, and Twinkies.
• Expectations vs. Reality — the rooftop party split-screen that delivers the film’s thesis, heartbreak, and wipe-transition brutality.
• The Supporting Cast — wise 9-year-old sisters, chaotic karaoke coworkers, and a society of people who all apparently work through their feelings via greeting cards.

Final Verdict:

Oz — Undertaker Eye Roll
Curtis — 63 Swedish Meatballs

Next week: Summer Movies Month continues with I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) — J. Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Ryan Phillippe, Anne Heche, fisherman hooks, late-90s cleavage angles, and a slasher villain who absolutely writes in all caps. Buckle up for glossy, scream-era chaos.