One More Day of Summer

Alright -- if this doesn't make you smile, you're a communist.

Inception

Eventually, no one in Hollywood will have time to make movies because they'll all be too busy going on dates with average people who asked them out on YouTube. Although at the rate I'm going these days, I'd fake cancer to get a date with this girl -- she's kind of adorable.

Then again, I'd also probably fake cancer to get a date with Joseph Gordon-Levitt too, since he rules.

The Huffington Post: 26-Year-Old Lindsey Miller, Cancer Patient, Asks Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Date/11.16.11

Mr. Joe Rising

It's been a rumor for a while given how Nolan likes to work with the same people more than once, but this is the best news I've heard all day (well, besides the county agreeing to drop those solicitation charges).

Entertainment Weekly: 'The Dark Knight Rises' May Add Joseph Gordon-Levitt to the Cast/2.2.11

(2,890)

Despite great reviews and a male and female lead whose respective work I just can't get enough of, I purposely didn't see (500) Days of Summer when it was in theaters for exactly the reason you'd probably guess, and I've employed the same logic in avoiding it on pay-per-view -- up until tonight. I'm way too tired right now to go into great detail about everything I just loved about this movie, but I'll throw out a few stream of consciousness thoughts.

It has three of the best quotes ever: The greeting card that reads, "Roses are red. Violets are blue. Fuck you, whore," Tom saying, "You know what sucks? Realizing that everything you believe in is complete and utter bullshit," and the attributed Henry Miller quote, "The best way to get over a woman is to turn her into literature," (which basically paraphrases the real Miller quote: "There are only three things to be done with a woman. You can love her, suffer for her, or turn her into literature,").

It confirms Joseph Gordon-Levitt as my absolute favorite young actor. Seriously, after Brick, The Lookout and now this, the guy can do no wrong.

The story was so undeniably recognizable to me, nearly perfect in spirit and occasionally even in detail, that I wanted to both laugh and cry at the same time. (I laughed out loud quite a bit, got wistful more than a few times, felt that spark of romantic exhilaration once or twice, managed to somehow avoid getting full-blown angry, and had to hold back tears only when Summer sweeps an eyelash off Tom's face with her finger and then holds it up for him to blow away.)

The musical number is a riot.

After watching it, I cannot wait to see Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass. She's only in a few scenes in (500) Days of Summer but she just about steals the movie.

I kept chuckling to myself, "I used to think that way, dude, and it got me exactly where you're gonna end up."

The final scene, when Tom meets (I love it) Autumn and everything goes back to 1? Yeah -- read the end of Dead Star Twilight.

It's a really, really beautiful movie. And contrary to the opening narration, it is a love story -- one that plays out the way a lot of real love stories do (and most Hollywood romantic comedies don't).

Oh yeah, and one more quote: "Penis!"

In Bloom

Writer-Director Rian Johnson's debut film, Brick, was a work of creative genius. Audaciously clever and wonderfully original, it took a dubious premise -- a Dashiell Hammett-esque detective story, complete with the appropriately impenetrable lingo, set in a modern high school -- and somehow turned it into pure, quirky magic. It completely upended the noir genre and marked both Johnson and the movie's star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as true voices of independent film.

Which is why I've been patiently awaiting the release of Johnson's new movie, which hits theaters next month.

The Brothers Bloom stars Adrian Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz. It's a dark comedy (although seemingly not as pitch black as Brick) about two con men who try to rip off an eccentric millionairess. Johnson has just made the movie's opening sequence available for viewing on Hulu, and it looks like it's not going to disappoint.

Take a look, and if you haven't seen it yet -- rent Brick immediately.

Hulu: The Brothers Bloom, Opening Sequence