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Killing Camel

Submitted by Jon on Tue, 02/23/2010 - 22:16

Show Notes

Discussion of Ishtar
Nick Cave-Into my Arms
Old Man Luedecke - Proof of Love
Film Theory
Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums And Shrines II
Laura Barrett - Deception Island Optimists Club
Romantic Comedies
500 Days of Summer

Audio: 

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When I watched 500 days of

Submitted by Nick on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 13:02.
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When I watched 500 Days of Summer, I thought: where's Ellen Page? Oh wait, that's Juno. Then I thought: Maya Rudolf looks a lot like Zooey Deschanel. Oh it is Zooey. Maya Rudolf is in Away We Go. Don't you find all these movies are the same? There's always a reference to some cool post punk band and an animated scene in the style of someone's personal sketch book.


Nick, I think the look of the

Submitted by Arif on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 14:33.
Arif's picture

Nick, I think the look of the these might have a lot more to do with the problems with marketing departments than perhaps the intentions of the filmmakers themselves. What I mean is that distribution companies usually break up the audiences into demographics with preferences with certain kinds of aesthetics that people will respond to. And I must admit most times it works on me. I like the honesty(or at least the illusion of it) that the look brings.

I make this distinction only because I kinda liked Away we go(but not the other two).

And also because i'm not wearing pants.

True. It's a shame. At least

Submitted by Nick on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 15:23.
Nick's picture

True. It's a shame.

At least in Juno and Away We Go, the supporting characters had lives. In 500 Days, their lives revolve around Gordon-Levitt's character, Tom. There's nothing wrong with Tom being self absorbed, but there is something wrong with the writers creating a world that revolves entirely around this one person. His friends and co-workers aren't people. They're caricatures. Caricatures that only speak about Tom's needs and wants. I feel like Scott Neustadter was trying too hard to tell us something about his life and deal with heartache that he admitted this is based on (and was obvious with the shout-out at the beginning. I wish they put that at the end. I think it influenced my judgment of this movie. Maybe I didn't give it a fair chance). Again, there's nothing wrong with writing a story about real heartache, but "his hand", as Jason would say, is way too present and forceful.

Good point about the

Submitted by Jason on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 17:00.
Jason's picture

Good point about the characters having no agency and existing solely for Tom. I would also add that another thing that irritated me about the film was that Tom is constantly describing his personality traits, Summer does this as well to a lesser extent. Instead of just showing us what type of person Tom is through, you know storytelling, we have to listen to him go on and on about who he is, and what he wants and blah blah blah. I don't have much to add, I just watched this movie yesterday and really hated it and I enjoy complaining about it.

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