Chucho E. Quintero (mistershinobi)

Now I can say this out and proud: Jennifer Hudson was born to be an actress. After seeing her entire repertoire (except Sex and the city, which doesn't count), I can confirm she's an extraordinary talent on the rough, with an uncanny sensibility and passion every moment she's on screen. From her courageous turn in The Secret Life of Bees to her subtle, beautiful bit in Winged creatures, she doesn't need to sing to show incredible depth and tear out her guts in front of a camera. I'm a big fan from now on.

And so, I watched this. I expect the whole razzle-dazzle and big momma's voices but everything was just kind of... lame. Jamie Foxx bored me to death, I never understood Danny Glover's character, Keith Robinson stole a role that was hand-made perfect for Elijah Kelley, Anika Noni Rose was cute but annoying and I don't think Beyonce was even in the movie. Her creepy eyebrows confused me.

But Eddie Murphy is cool in his flashy role. Not great, not extraordinary, not Oscar material: just cool. His drug problems are so weakly portrayed, it's almost as if they were scared or censored.

Technically, the film is marvelous, and it is really entertaining, but it's not the wonderful spectacle everybody hoped it'd be. Weird enough, there's no soul in it, no spice, nothing to chew on. Just drag-queen costumes and Jennifer Hudson's larger-than-life performance. Her main song (you know which one) is not even her biggest moment: she has a lot more to choose from. You can touch her pain through the entire thing. It's incredible.

In case you wondered about my opinion on certain issue: yes, she deserved that Oscar. Barraza, Kikuchi and Blanchett were all unforgettable but Hudson is here to stay: and her next films proved it. Except the one about martinis and high heels, obviously.

Loretta Devine's cameo was a dream.

Picture this: a group of friends go to the movies. One of them is a sweet, dreamy guy who recently broke-up with his sweet, rocker girlfriend but can't let go. Another one is a metalhead girl who can't move on after she broke-up with her boyfriend... more than a year ago. Two of them are a brand-new couple where she loves him more than he does. And the other one is me: a lonely film buff who recently came out as asexual after deciding love wasn't in his plans.

The lights go down and we're all excited about the indie, bittersweet film we're going to watch. Smiles on our faces, laughs and thrills.

The lights go up after an hour and a half and we're all in shock, in complete silence. Speechless, I turn to my friends and mutter an apology: we were not expecting to get so hurt with a film.

From the outside, it may seem like just another indie, rom-com with cute moments and quirky characters but you can't begin to explain the perfection of this film til you experience it. The screenplay is like a ticking clock: everything works flawlessly in its right moment and place, every dialogue, every joke, every sweet moment, every painful memory. Both lead characters are so uncannily developed it's scary and tough to get through how real they are. The film is so perfectly built that we fall in love with Summer at exactly the same pace that Tom does, we are crushed by her actions and words as if she was doing it to us, and we hate her just as much as Tom does -or maybe even more. But we need her. We need her so badly that we can't stop watching, hoping for a lame happy ending. Hoping for a guiding light that tell us everything will be OK, that love is real and possible.

But this is not a movie. This is life in its most painful, true portrayal I've ever seen. And life, like love, doesn't have happy endings.

Hysterical scenes, unforgettable dialogues and brutal moments (you know you covered your eyes when the split-screen Expectations v. Reality scene came along), (500) Days of Summer is a painful experience, and that's awesome: it's exactly how movies are supposed to be. An experience to live in its fullest, to feel right in the guts. To reject, to love, to remember, to rinse, and repeat.

I've seen several films that touched me in so many important ways after I saw this one back in 2005 but there will always be only one Garden State in my life. I saw it a couple of days after it was released in just one theatre here in Mexico City and all I can remember is walking out of the cinema after the movie ended with the true decision of becoming a filmmaker. This movie completely changed my life, and that's beyond any flaw, any opinion, any academic review of rights and wrongs. This film means more to me than just 109 minutes of moving pictures set to the greatest soundtrack in modern memory. And that's all I have to say.

The ultimate B/W slacker indie film.