10 Great Films That Reclaimed Rom-Coms For Men

6. 500 (Days of Summer)

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Like "She's Out Of My League" for hipsters, this ticks all the boxes of the genre - but with rather more originality and emotional verve than its inferior cousin. Joeph Gordon Levitt is as loveable as ever as Tom, an architect turned greeting card designer with an unfailingly romantic streak, with Zooey Deschanel (turning up the quirky charm to the max) as Summer, the girl of his dreams who conveniently doesn't believe in love. After the initial flirtation and get-together, it's the deterioration rather than the genesis of their relationship that serves as the focus in a sharp screenplay. In a similar manner to Eternal Sunshine, the innovative script plays around with the timeline of Tom and Summer's romance, juxtaposing different events in order to produce the desired effect, in which the audience follows Tom's perspective as it changes and develops throughout the film. This works extremely well, with the resultant bittersweet feeling raising it above the generic; a couple of excellent set-piece sequences, too - the experiences/reality sequence is a standout - raise the emotional tone and make for an excellent cinematic experience. Thus, even while it maintains the classic tropes of mancomic cinema, the film's ability to take familiar elements and meld them into something new and different makes this so much more.
 
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I'm just a boy, sitting in front of a blank page, asking it to write itself. Never more at home than when I'm being sent on a journey by a good piece of cinema, I've lost count of the hours spent trying to persuade people that Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson is the finest actor of his generation. When I grow up, I want to be Elwood P Dowd, but I'd settle for being George Bailey.