She Does The City’s Guide to Films About Feelings

By Haley Cullingham

There’s nothing like those movies that inspire nostalgia for things that just happened, people you’re still friends with, and the life you’re still living. To celebrate Harbourfront’s free screening of ‘Say Anything,’ (the quintessential Film About Feelings), we’ve reviewed a few of this summer’s efforts to follow in Cameron Crowe’s footsteps, and hold up the holy boombox. Those movies that, upon exiting the theatre, leave your life momentarily tinted in sunset-sepia and scored by the combined power of one thousand skinny, awkward hipster violinists: Sam Mendes’ Away We Go, Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer, and Greg Mottola’s Adventureland.

Say Anything screens at Harbourfront on August 5th at 9 pm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFV7FnbhBRY

Away We Go

The Story You Can Totally Relate To:
Boy (John Krasinski) impregnates girl (Maya Rudolph) and shortly after, they discover their only local relatives, his goofy parents, are moving to Belgium. This sends the couple on a trip across North America, trying to find somewhere to call home, and visiting a rag-tag group of old friends, relatives, and crazy people. Directed by Sam Mendes and co-written by Dave Eggers, it was impossible for this movie not to be amazing.

The Mixed CD:
The soundtrack is mostly written by Alexi Murdoch (the Scottish singer-songwriter who wrote ‘Orange Sky,’) with some Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan thrown in.

The Charming Quirks:
All come from the lovable, well-performed characters. Krasinski and Rudolph’s chemistry, and the true intimacy they create on-screen, is an extremely watchable example of misfits-in-love. Their talk about marriage on a trampoline skyrockets past quirky into just plain awesome.

SAY ANYTHING FACTOR: Turn up the Peter Gabriel and keep your windows open.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEp3NKG2U5U

(500) Days of Summer

The Story You Can Totally Relate To:
Boy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets girl (Zooey Deschanel-instapoints) at the L.A. greeting card company that employs them both. She’s from a small town, they talk about the Smiths in an elevator and they both dress like it’s 1967: it’s love. Well, maybe. We find out in the first 5 minutes that she’s married by the end, and we’re pretty sure it’s not to him. Some poignantly truthful moments occur (Deschanel’s slow rejection of Gordon-Levitt, including the classic never-listened-to mixed-CD moment, will inspire a lot of ‘been there, done that, felt guilty’), but also some painfully contrived ones. Lots of unnecessary maudlinism, romantic trips to Ikea, and predictable screenwriting, but the occasional moment of adorable sincerity.

The Mixed CD:
Regina Spektor (reigning queen of breakups in brownstones) opens the movie with ‘Us.’ Other featured bands include The Temper Trap, Wolfmother, and a pretty excellent dance sequence to Hall and Oates’ ‘You Make My Dreams Come True.’ But most of that good stuff is compromised by that fucking Smiths elevator scene.

The Charming Quirks:
Illustrations capturing the state of the central relationship, featuring a watercolour tree. There’s a cute little bad-ass sister who calls Gordon-Levitt a pussy, and sporadic Sex and the City style interviews with main characters about the meaning of love.

SAY ANYTHING FACTOR: Like being Keymaster at the party. You’re watching everyone have fun, but you can’t really get into it.

Adventureland

The Story You Can Totally Relate To:
In 1987, Boy (Jesse Eisenberg) graduates college an intellectual virgin with big plans: a tour of Europe with his foppish best friend, and Columbia grad school in the fall. But he hits a little financial snag and ends up suffering all summer long working games at an amusement park run by Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig. As the months pass by, he befriends a pipe-smoking Martin Starr, fights Ryan Reynolds for Kristen Stewart’s awkward affection, and gets disco-seduced on the dance floor. An honest, grin-and-stomach-flip inducing coming of age story.

The Mix CD:
The Velvet Underground appear on a mix of sad songs Eisenberg makes for Stewart, there’s some Bowie, New York Dolls, Whitesnake, and a whooole lotta Replacements. All the original music was written by indie veterans Yo La Tengo.

The Charming Quirks:
An ensemble cast that works seamlessly together to create a totally believable universe that borders on literary, and awesome production design adds to the effect. Good old-fashioned filmmaking leaves no need for clumsy devices.

SAY ANYTHING FACTOR: You Are About to Know Lloyd Dobler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0fCB4eDq08