My wife, Julia, and I love to go to the movies. Who doesn’t? It’s our favorite thing to do when we get out of the house and we’re fortunate to have about 25 theaters a block away in Times Square.

Now I’m not any more of a movie critic than you are, but I know good acting when I see it and I am especially fascinated by good director’s work.

Last night we saw both. In fact, we saw, for me, the second really good movie of the summer (the first being Star Trek).

(500) Days of Summer is billed as “Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t. This post modern love story is never what we expect it to be – it’s thorny yet exhilarating, funny and sad, a twisted journey of highs and lows that doesn’t quite go where we think it will.”

I love these kinds of movies where the stories are original. Far too often I recognize plots where I can see a bunch of Hollywood writers sitting around in a room trying to think up the next plot twist together. These stories, with their cliché concepts leave me pretty cold. I don’t much go in for formula writing.

This is a movie that can only have been actually lived. This is so true to life, that’s it – it’s savagely true to life. Every scene seems to end with a knife through the heart or an unexpected burst of laughter or a catch in the throat.

The three main creators of this one all did their jobs extremely well – the writers, the director and the actors.

Led by two delightfully fine young talents, Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I turned immediately to Julia literally 30 seconds into the movie and whispered,“We’re in good hands.” I rose and fell on the lives of these two young lovers throughout the experience and when the movie was over I was just wrung out from laughing and crying and witnessing the hard realities of young (and old) love up there on the silver screen.

A tip of the hat also goes to new director, Marc Webb, a music video and short film director who now debuts as a major motion picture director. This guy’s one to watch. He really knows how to carve out one poignant scene after another and help the actors nail down their moments of truth. On top of it, he knows how to capture it all on camera and add style to boot.

OK, now I’ll shut up – lest I over-talk it. I can never guarantee you’ll like it, (an older couple got up about 20 minutes into the move and left grumbling), but this one will be a hit this summer. This is also one of those movies that I won’t be able to pass by on the tube years from now when I come upon it channel surfing.  It’ll get inside of you.

Go see it. It’s a good one.

For more inspirational music and thoughts from Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.