It’s not a stretch to say that 500 Days Of Summer is one of the best romcoms of the 2000s because of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance, how it subverts all the genre’s clichés in telling the story of Tom and Summer, and perhaps most importantly, how it continues to stir up a neverending debate over which of the pair was the “villain” or bad guy.”
Speaking of villains and bad guys, the GOAT team talk about the nonsense Kim and Kanye have been up to on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
With 500 Days Of Summer still sparking discussions over whether Tom or Summer is the “bad guy,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt has now stepped in to confirm once and for all who the real “villain” is.
A Twitter user took hold of the popular “movie villain vs. actual villain” meme that’s been going around and made their own take using Summer as the “movie villain” while Tom is the “actual villain.” This great little meme tweet soon caught Gordon-Levitt’s attention and he retweeted it with the caption “I approve this message.”
It’s quite hard to disagree with his tweet here, though the amount of replies may suggest otherwise. 500 Days Of Summer depicts events from Tom’s biased point of view and unsubtly shows us how much of an arsehole he is, yet the amount of conversation in the replies of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s tweet over whether he’s the villain or not is actually surprising despite all the problematic moments we’re shown.
Interestingly enough, this is far from the first time Joseph Gordon-Levitt has cautioned viewers about sympathising with Tom. During a 500 Days Of Summer 10th anniversary retrospective with Entertainment Weekly, Gordon-Levitt noted how viewers put Summer in the villain role instead of Tom even though she is “entirely honest the entire movie.”
Prior to that, Gordon-Levitt told Playboy (via NME) in 2012 that his 500 Days Of Summer character is no role model and how Tom “develops a mildly delusional obsession over a girl onto whom he projects all these fantasies.”
So there you have it, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has come out and confirmed (again) that Tom is the real villain in 500 Days Of Summer, not Summer. And on that note, it’s time for a rewatch because the film is ultimately still great despite all the people misinterpreting its message.
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