(500) Days of Summer is an Annie Hall for the 21st century, so I highly recommend it for fans of the latter. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of Annie Hall and (500) Days of Summer annoyed me in many of the same ways. Still, both are good examples of people going over where their love went wrong, and this one is very well made. It also reminded me a bit of Definitely Maybe, which I like better than both films.

Things I did like: Zooey Deschanel's eyes (the filmmakers did all they could do to get you to fall into them), a musical number set to Hall and Oates "You Make My Dreams," a song that generally makes me go ehh, but which fits in well here, the soundtrack in general, Summer's apartment (with a clever homage to Magritte), our hero's recovery, and especially the last scene, which is perfect and does a lot to redeem what has come before. I also liked the basic form of the movie; the days are not presented in chronological order, but you get a helpful title which informs you this is day 256, day 37, or day 500. It also gives it a bit of an "Endless Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" flavor.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to be turning into John Cusack in this film, or maybe they're both turning into Dustin Hoffman. The shot where Tom sees Summer naked on his bed is such an obvious reference to The Graduate that I had to laugh. It's totally appropriate, too. To emphasize this, Tom and Summer go to see The Graduate later in the film. There are many references to other films, including, I swear, Enchanted.

Love the soundtrack to the film. I would change my Blanche nominations but I'm afraid Mirgun might figure out where I live.

TWO LOVERS is an excellent film with an Oscar caliber performance by Joaquin Phoenix.

I saw Outrage on HBO. I was surprised to see many of those politicians identified as being gay. I am also not sure whether a politician remaining closeted is a hypocrite or a realist. Granted that in some regions of the country it may not be a problem, but in other regions it may be a career killer.

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