#scott neustadter

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

(500) Days of Summer (2009, Marc Webb)

02/12/2024

[fluffycakesistainted]

[T]he discovery for Daisy is that the version of Billy that she's in love with is not one she could ever have. That one belongs to Camila, and she doesn't want the bad version.

"Write On" podcast with Daisy Jones & The Six Co-Showrunner Scott Neustadter

[jesstasticvoyage]

[addictivecontradiction]

The spectacular now, 2013

[bossupsettledown]

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

"People buy cards 'cause they can't say how they feel or they're afraid too."

[paynesgraey]

on love

“You can’t ascribe great cosmic significance from a simple earthly event. Coincidence. That’s all anything ever is. Nothing more than coincidence.” -Scott Neustadter for 500 Days of Summer

I was eleven when 500 Days of Summer came out. It was first time I had ever watched a love not work out on the big screen. And it wasn’t just that Tom and Summer didn’t end up together—it was the fact that you never truly find out why it didn't work out. There was no big event, defining reason, or even a single moment that you could pinpoint that could explain why. I remember leaving the movie theatre not only heartbroken for Tom, but also deeply resentful of Summer. How could she just seemingly fall out of love after so effortlessly falling in it? How could she leave Tom and move on in such a meaningful and purposeful way that lead not only to another man, but one that became her husband. It’s really easy to take sides and prescribe labels onto these people in relationships in order to understand them better. At eleven, Summer was the bad guy. 

Now, when I think about Summer, she’s no longer the villain. Tom is no longer the good guy. They’re just people. If people can fall in love, people can undoubtedly fall out of it too. Because love is about the big moments. For Tom, it was all about that meet cute, Ikea, his park bench, the fight, the break-up, and the final clinch at winning Summer back. Love, however, is also all about the small moments—these moments in between. For Summer, it was this unwavering uncertainty that she felt all throughout her time with Tom that made her realize the absolute certainty she felt about her subsequent relationship. 

There’s never a definitive why. Why you fell for someone can also be the exact same reason why things end. Opposites attract just as easily as they repel. Like-minded people connect just as fast as they crave novelty and difference. No good relationship is perfect and no bad relationship is ever completely void of good and happy moments. That’s what makes love capable of evoking every single feeling and emotion ever. It’s this distinctly human experience that is completely unique for everyone, all while being ever-changing.

The Ancient Greeks broke down love into four different forms. Modern and contemporary thinkers have broken it down even further. However, much like the concept that they’re trying to delineate, you can’t really define love’s forms cleanly. It’s complicated, contradicting, and conflicting. But maybe that’s the beauty of it. Because how naive is it to assume that there is someone out there just for you, and simultaneously just as naive to believe that out of the billions of people inhabiting Earth right now, you can’t find someone for you.

[bookwormlily]

Tom: What happened? Why didn't they work out?

Summer: What always happens. Life.

[jacquelinep21]