A 2009 Indie film festival darling, (500) Days of Summer is a beautiful, charming, and sincere not-a-love-story love story.  Paired with a gorgeous soundtrack, I'd say this one nails it.

I'd been checking out the soundtrack since its release a couple of weeks ago and have completely fallen in love with this indie, mellow, emo-mix of everything from Feist to The Smiths to She & Him (naturally, female lead Zooey Deschanel's adorable vocal stylings found their way into the soundtrack).

Finally seeing the scenes set to the soundtrack, I absolutely adored this movie.  The narrator tells the audience in the beginning that this is a story about boy meets girl, but it's "not a love story."  And it's not, in the Hollywood definition of love story.  It's emotional and honest, in every way possible.

I'm no cinematographer, but I can greatly appreciate the lighting and filming that was used in this movie; characters looked real and unedited.  Flaws and sweat were visible.  Conversations were believable, and I loved how Los Angeles didn't look like Los Angeles.  In fact, it looked like a quirky New York City neighborhood until they showed the skyline and told you it was Los Angeles.

The story unfolds out of chronological order, which is endearing in that it slowly pieces together the events as if they were a puzzle.  

All in all, I thought this was an refreshingly honest take on a boy-meets-girl story that was just charming and quirky enough to be absolutely adorable, one I'll see over and over so as to never miss a single detail.