the indie film of 2009 I will watch over and over again

Rating: 8/10 (6 October 2009)

Yes, here it is. Here it is that indie film that since 2006, when Little Miss Sunshine stole our hearts, we have become accustomed to watch: (500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009).
Everything is there. The not-so-famous-but-yet-known actors, the cool music, the mix with art/drawings, the witty dialogs...
If that wasn't enough (and it usually isn't), (500) Days of Summer speaks volumes to me. The story is bitter-sweet and romantic, it has a cool soundtrack and better yet there is so much in the script that reminds me of Nick Hornby's books - who happens to be my favourite contemporary English write.
But still I can't help but feel that something is missing from (500) Days. That something just doesn't quite measure up to its predecessors.
I know it really isn't a fair competition. When you look back, after Little Miss Sunshine three year ago, we were greeted by Diablo Cody's Oscar winning Juno in 2007 and last year we saw the sweet-teenage-flick Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.
So I guess we were a little spoiled, because these three films were actually really good in their own right. They all had something that you could go "wow, this is actually pretty great".
However, in our 2009 lovely indie film there isn't anything like that. More than that, (500) felt a bit too fake. Everything is so well put together. The dialogues, the costumes, the makeup, the sets everything! It really does feel like is fitting some kind of genre box, following a formula, which is not exactly a bad thing, but I think it ends up being pretty boring.
Funny enough, in the end none of its shortcomings matters. So far, from what I've heard everyone is loving it. And, truthfully, like I said in the title, I'm still going to watch it over and over again.