10 Movies That Are Popular For All The Wrong Reasons
8. (500) Days Of Summer
Like Fight Club, (500) Days of Summer is a film that saw masses of young men identify with it, feeling that it so perfectly bottled their frustrations with modern life - in particular, the dating scene.
Protagonist Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) quickly finds himself falling for co-worker Summer (Zooey Deschanel), with the pair soon embarking on a casual relationship. While Summer maintains she isn't looking for anything serious, Tom falls for her deep.
Ultimately the fact that the story is framed around Tom's experiences pushes the audience to sympathise with his perspective, that Summer callously broke his heart in the end.
For many - namely men - it gives them permission to wallow in their own romantic failures, content that they, the main character of their lives, were done wrong.
Yet a more nuanced evaluation of the film makes it clear that Tom puts Summer on a pedestal and views her through a highly idealised lens, and that he was largely the one responsible for his own heartbreak.
Now, it's certainly fair to say that Summer wasn't perfect. Her communication with Tom could've been clearer, but she's certainly not the "villain" some would care to paint her as.
(500) Days of Summer is a superbly written and acted romantic dramedy, yet if you're engaging with it as purely the relatable journey of a spurned man, you're only really seeing half the movie.