(500) Days of Summer – A Special Kind of Rom-Com Coming of Age Film – Review

Posted on November 17, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter
500 Days of Summer (2009) - IMDb

Director: Marc Webb

Writers: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend, Chloë Grace Moretz, Matthew Gray Gubler, Clark Greg, and Yvette Nicole Brown

Rating: ★★★★½ 

(500) Days of Summer was the directorial debut from Marc Webb, who would go on to make The Amazing Spider-Man three years later. The lead role is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who would go on to play Robin in The Dark Knight Rises, joining him is Chloë Grace Moretz AKA Hit Girl from Kick Ass, as well as Clark Greg who is Phil Coulson from the MCU. This is almost an origin story for comic book heroes from a decade ago. The only main character that hasn’t appeared in a superhero film is Zooey Deschanel, at least not yet. This isn’t a superhero film in any stretch of the imagination, although it does rely on magical realism a little bit. Instead, this is an emotional and moving coming of age story about love that burns fast and brightly before sizzling out.

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) writes greetings cards for a living. Almost instantly he falls head over heels in love for his boss’s new assistant Summer (Zooey Deschanel). They grow closer, date and then break up, which leaves Tom feeling lost as he tries to get his life back on track.

The story is told in a non-linear fashion, it covers the five hundred days from Tom meeting Summer to the true end of their relationship, skipping back and forth to put piece after piece of the puzzle in place before you can step back and see the entire picture. On screen there is a counter that appears when the day changes. It’s a really strange way to tell a love story, because you almost know the ending going in. It really works in making this a unique experience. At the beginning of the film Tom says in a voice over that this isn’t a love story and when you see him broken moments later, you know that’s true. It’s not a love story, it’s more about healing after a break-up and how the memories won’t go away.

(500) Days of Summer is almost like a fantastical storybook. There’s the voice over narrating the story at points, which feels like something out of a children’s book. The phenomenal way the music interacts with the narrative, including a full-on dance routine, that oddly the musical Zooey Deschanel isn’t present for. There’s even a spot of animation to bring the magical realism full circle. It’s a truly whimsical and quirky story that feels like nothing you’ve seen before. At one point the screen splits with Tom’s expectations of how an event will go on the left and the reality on the right. It’s not played for laughs, although a lot of the film is funny (especially the Ikea sequence), instead it captures the struggle going through Tom’s mind.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are absolutely brilliant as the leading roles. Gordon-Levitt feels very relatable as the love-sick Tom. He almost stalks Summer in an attempt to get to know her. Deschanel is just as great as she is in everything else. The chemistry between them is immense and their relationship feels real.

(500) Days of Summer is about the beginning and endings of relationships. It’s incredibly emotional and a truly special kind of film. The cast are fantastic, and this is a must watch. Over the years since it’s release it has found a wide audience and deserves that and so much more.

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Mid November 2021 Update

Posted on November 17, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Hello everyone, it’s time for my weekly update. This week is a slow week for releases, especially near me. Tomorrow I will be seeing Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which I’m looking forward to. It’s got to be better than 2016, which to be honest did have some great moments, but I doubt it will come close to the originals. I’m surprised not to see more hype for this film, it is essentially the Ghostbusters 3 we’ve all been asking for. I think the wave of ‘nostalgia sells’ is beginning to die down a little. Other than that it’s Tick, Tick, Boom on Netflix, which I’m even more excited for. The trailer looks great, and there’s a small featurette about the film on YouTube which is well worth watching.

This weekend, I will be going to Wales Comic Con, which isn’t actually in Wales, but still. It’s the first convention that I’ve been to in over two years, which is my longest gap since I started going to cons back in 2012. It’s hard to believe that was almost ten years ago now. I’m looking forward to wandering around the stalls, seeing the talks and hopefully meeting a few actors. Troy Baker is going to be there, Joel from The Last of Us and Kanji from Persona 4, which is exciting. There’s also a few people from Buffy/Angel.

I’ve already downloaded a few films to watch in the hotel on Netflix, mostly comedies, nothing to taxing after a long day of walking. So that’s what the reviews will be over the weekend. I’ll also be taking my tablet to hopefully catch up on some reading. I’m over half way through The Whistling now so hopefully there will be a review for that up tomorrow.

I’ve started reading while on the treadmill over the last week. I find that I don’t make enough time for reading or exorcising, so I’ve combined them together and found it’s easier this way. So I’m hoping that will help both fitness wise and reading. I’ve been averaging about 4 miles a day walking, apart from yesterday where I woke up feeling so rough that I went back to bed until work started at 12.

That’s my plans for the upcoming week, hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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A Dangerous Method – Film Review

Posted on November 16, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter
A Dangerous Method (2011) - IMDb

Director: David Cronenberg

Writer: Christopher Hampton

Starring: Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, and Vincent Cassel

Rating: ★★★★

It’s been ten years since David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method was first released. It deservedly received critical acclaim upon its release. The film focuses on the relationships between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), his patient Sabrina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) and his mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). While Jung grows closer to Spielrein, his relationship with his mentor grows more fragile as time progresses.

The performances are excellent. The main trio are completely captivating. Keira Knightley goes from being a patient to expert throughout the course of the film and she’s convincing all the way through. The opening scenes with her speaking to Jung are filled with a nuanced and difficult performance, and the way her troubles seep through the person she would become later are expertly shown. Michael Fassbender is great as Carl Jung, he’s precise and calculated in his performance, and you’d expect nothing less from Fassbender.

Viggo Mortensen is unrecognisable as Sigmund Freud, his usual charm comes across and you can completely believe that this is a man who is still discussed and studied almost a century on, despite his own feelings, which are mentioned in the film, that people would still be rejecting his ideas in a century. When Freud and Jung are both on screen together, that’s when the film really shines. The dialogue is incredibly well written, to the point that even though it is a heavy subject, it feels very accessible without ever feeling pandering.

It’s a mental debate between the two great minds and listening to them discuss their ideas, despite lacking any particular knowledge makes me want to pick up a book and read more about them. They both saw the way people act completely differently, and the film does an excellent job at presenting their ideas without choosing one over another. Later in the film Spielrein puts her own ideas forward that feel just as credible. It’s a thought-provoking story.

Their relationship that becomes strained over time is one of the two main threads of the film, it’s the better side of it and one that is captivating. The other thread is the relationship between Jung and Spielrein. It starts as a doctor/patient relationship before moving to a mentor/student and then an affair. While Jung cheating on his wife does humanise him, it’s a deplorable act that’s never really reckoned with. He does lose his job amongst the scandal, and moves to America, but finds a new mistress easily enough. That speaks volumes of the early 20th century, but the effects on his wife, Emma (Sarah Gadon) is only really hinted at rather than fully shown, which would have made the film more interesting. Jung throughout the film is presented as cold and calculated and his relationship with his wife and Spielrein is just another extension of that.

A Dangerous Method makes the important figures in the history of psychoanalysis seem human and real, instead of just a series of quotes. Even though they are experts on the human mind, that doesn’t stop them from being just as messed up as the rest of us.

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Friday Book One: The First Day of Christmas – Book Review

Posted on November 16, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter
Friday, Book One: The First Day of Christmas TP | Image Comics

Ed Brubaker is in my top 3 comic writers of all time, he may even be my favourite. From his superhero stuff like his unbeatable run on Captain America, to his crime/noir series with Sean Phillips, I honestly haven’t read a thing he’s written that I don’t like. Every time I get an email from my local comic shop saying a new Brubaker book is on my older, I get excited. He’s an excellent storyteller, with perfect dialogue and a style that seems to fit everything. So I couldn’t wait to read Friday when I heard it was coming out. Friday is being released as issues on Panel Syndicate online with the issues being collected and printed in smaller than normal books. Friday Book One collects issues 1 – 3 with some bonus sketches and a note from Brubaker going into detail about the inspiration for this.

Friday Fitzhugh and Lancelot Jones have grown up solving mysteries together in the mysterious town of Kings Hill. The fun has to end when Friday left to go to collage, but she is coming back to town for Christmas. As soon as Friday arrives, Lancelot picks her up and they are on an adventure again, solving the mystery of a stolen knife from an archaeology site. There is something bother Friday, the day before she left for collage something happened and even though Lancelot is acting like nothing has changed, she knows it’s something they have to confront together.

Brubaker fans will feel right at home with Friday. Straight away with the noir style narration, it’s like a warm hot chocolate, just brilliant from the first panel to the end of the book. This one is a YA style mystery mixed with his usual style. The story is just as gripping as you’d expect and has some dark moments. It’s only three issues in so far, so this is mostly just set up, but it’s still already brilliant and I can’t wait for Book Two to arrive, whenever it does.

The artwork is just beautiful. Marcos Martin and Munsta Vicente have done an excellent job in bringing this story to life. Every page looks great. There’s one dream sequence in particular where the artwork is just stunning. It’s easy to read and look through, the character designs are all unique and stand out. It’s pure brilliance.

Friday is yet another instant classic by Brubaker, with some excellent artwork from Martin and Vicente. I honestly can’t wait for book two, this one was such a joy to read the entire way through. This may be my comic of the year.

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Puppet Killer – A Quirky and Bizarre Parody That’s Destined to Become a Cult Classic – Film Review

Posted on November 15, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Lisa Ovies

Writer: Kevin Mosley

Starring: Aleks Paunovic, Lee Majdoub, Lisa Durupt, Richard Harmon, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Kyle Cassie, Geoff Gustafson,

Rating: ★★★

Horror and Comedy has always gone hand in hand. There’s always parodies of the scariest or most extreme films and a lot of horror has comedic elements anyway. Puppet Killer is an over-the-top all-out comedy horror that holds nothing back to get a laugh. It may outstay its welcome, but this is the perfect film for a film night with friends and is destined to become a cult classic.

Jamie (Aleks Paunovic) has been raised on horror films; he is beyond obsessed with them. His mother made it a tradition for them to watch them together, and he kept that alive after she passed. He keeps Simon, a puppet that his mother game him, around himself at all times. One night, his stepmother takes away Jamie’s horror VHS tapes, thinking they aren’t suitable for a child. The puppet then comes alive and kills the stepmother. Ten years later Jamie and his friends go back to the cabin where it happened and find that Simon is still living there.

This is a ridiculous film that doesn’t take itself seriously at all. The puppet looks like something from Sesame Street and not from a horror film. Lee Majdoub does the voice for Simon and it’s funny every time you hear it. Most of the kills parody classic horror films from The Shining to Friday the 13th. Simon in the hocky mask is brilliant.

The effects are surprisingly good. When the stepmother is murdered at the beginning, there’s a jump-scare that actually works, and then the killing is more brutal than you would expect from something like this. Her ankle is slit open, and it looks pretty gruesome. There are a few other deaths that look great as well. To top it off, you can clearly see that most of the actors are still breathing after being killed. It’s little things that make it so funny.

Some of the ‘teenagers’ in the film, with Jamie at the back right.

One of the best jokes about the film is the actor’s ages. It’s a staple of horror films for older people to be playing teenagers. Puppet Killer takes this to another level. Jamie is about eight when his stepmother dies, it then jumps ten years into the future and Jamie is played by Aleks Paunovic, who was around fifty when the film was shot. He has a stubble and is not convincing at all as a teenager, but that’s the point. The whole cast is like this. There is something very funny about a group of middle-aged people pretending to be teenagers. Jamie is also very naïve and has the joyfulness of a much younger child, so it’s a fifty-year-old playing an eighteen-year-old, who has the mind of a ten-year-old. The joy on his face whenever he picks up Simon is unbeatable. The actor is even older than the one playing his dad, it’s genius casting.

Puppet Killer has a lot of laugh out loud moments. It does feel slightly too long, and the joke outstays its welcome, but there’s still funny moments towards the end. The ages of the actors keeps coming around and brings a laugh and the killer puppet is so ridiculous that it is always funny.

Puppet Killer will be available on Digital Download from 29th November

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