AND THE WINNER IS…

Last Sunday, I met with the up-and-coming actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in the bowels of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, surrounded by art from Tim Burton’s new exhibit, to discuss their film “500 Days of Summer” (Fox Searchlight, 7/17, trailer), a romantic-dramedy that was one of this summer’s surprise hits and is now being revived for a big awards season push. (In fact, as we spoke a screening of the film was being held across the hall for a capacity-crowd of guild members who will help decide its fate over the coming months.)

The film’s journey to this point is nothing short of remarkable. It was director Marc Webb’s first feature (he’s been shooting commercials for years); it was built around two undeniably promising but largely unknown young actors; it was shot on a shoestring budget of just $7.5 million (at one point the production had to shut down until additional funds could be raised); and its poster’s catchphrase, which is supposed to convince people to see a movie, was “This is not a love story, this is a story about love,” which doesn’t really make a lot of sense unless you’ve already seen it. Nevertheless, its spot-on depiction of the complicated nature of relationships in the 21st century quickly earned it rave reviews and strong word-of-mouth, propelling it to just under $50 million in box-office receipts and thrusting its stars firmly into the public’s consciousness. (Gordon-Levitt just hosted “Saturday Night Live” and Deschanel has never been more in-demand.)

The crash of Fox Searchlight’s big 2009 awards hopeful “Amelia” opened up a wealth of resources for the rest of the studios slate. The animated “Fantastic Mr. Fox” got a major rollout, the Jeff Bridges-vehicle “Crazy Heart” was pushed up from 2010, and now “500 Days” is being promoted for nominations in the categories of best picture, best actor, best actress, best cinematography (Eric Steelberg, who also lensed this year’s “Up in the Air”), and especially best original screenplay (a category that frequently celebrates offbeat scripts like the one that Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber penned for this film).

“500 Days” is both old-fashioned and cutting-edge. Like many classic movies, but unlike most today, it is told from the perspective of a male (Gordon-Levitt’s Tom) who falls for and has his heart broken by a female (Deschanel’s Summer), not the other way around. Unlike most classic movies, but like many today, it is presented in a non-linear way. This sort of approach—popularized by “Memento” (2001), “Crash” (2005), and the trilogy of films written by Guillermo Arriaga and director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, “Amores Perros” (2000), “21 Grams” (2003), and “Babel” (2006)—often seems gratuitous, but in this case seems entirely appropriate and even inspired. As Roger Ebert has noted, one’s memories of a bygone relationship are usually varied (good times, bad times, and everything in-between tend to blur together), so it makes sense to recount them on screen like a deck of cards that has been dropped and quickly shuffled together again.

Click HERE to listen to my chat with Gordon-Levitt, which includes discussion about:

• His experiences as a child actor and thoughts on his early work in films like “Angels in the Outfield” (1994 — “I love that movie”) and on TV shows like “3rd Rock from the Sun” (1996-2001).
• His previous collaboration with Deschanel in Jordan Melamed’s indie “Manic” (2001) — “That was the movie that Gregg Araki saw so that he put me in ‘Mysterious Skin,’ and then Scott Frank saw “Mysterious Skin” and put me in ‘The Lookout,’ and Chris Nolan saw me in ‘The Lookout’ and put me in “Inception.” So if you could isolate a ‘turning point’ I guess it was this little-known indie movie.”
• Why he quit acting after “Manic” — “I wanted to go to college, really, was the main reason,  just wanted to do a sort of normal-kid college thing, and I moved here to New York, went to Columbia, and didn’t act for, like, two years. One of the smartest things I’ve ever done, actually” — and how the FinalCutPro video-editing software, of all things, convinced him to come back — at which point, he says, “I couldn’t get a job for a year.”
• The spectacular/surrealistic scene in “500 Days” featuring him, backup dancers, and animated characters dancing to the Hall & Oates song “You Make My Dreams Come True,” which is probably the best outward projection of post-coital afterglow in film history and certainly the most joyous scene in movies this year. (Of the day it was filmed, he says, “There’s a pretty good argument to make that that was the coolest day of my life.”)

Click HERE to listen to my chat with Deschanel, which includes discussion about:

• Her name’s unusual original (Zooey is the male character in J.D. Salinger’s 1961 book “Franny and Zooey”), spelling (two o’s in her first name), and pronunciation (ZO-ee Day-shuh-nell).
• “Quirky,” the word that comes up most frequently in profiles of her and reviews of her work, and what she interprets it to mean.
• Her “other” career as the lead vocalist, pianist, and banjo player for the indie folk band She & Him, and how “It seems like every movie I do they ask me to sing. It’s not like my choice or anything!” Interestingly, she notes that when making movies, “I always listen to a lot of music. I always make playlists for different characters. That’s just an important part of how I feel things.”
• “500 Days” and the unusual situation of having to shoot out-of-order a film that is told out-of-order; her own views on love, having played a character who doesn’t believe in it in the film and then, only months later, gotten married in real-life; and why she, she jokes, she was “pissed” and “jealous” that Joe got to do a big dance number but she didn’t! (Actually, she did! After the production ended, she, Gordon-Levitt, and Webb got back together to shoot “Bank Dance,” a charming music video set to the tune of the She & Him tune “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” that has been used to help promote the film. See it below.)

Photo: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in “500 Days of Summer.” Credit: Fox Searchlight.