Marc Webb's movie career is just getting under way but shows serious signs of promise. It's a far cry from his days tackling rock acts like My Chemical Romance, Good Charlotte, AFI, Yellowcard and Incubus. Webb's Hollywood debut was 2009's (500) Days of Summer. Starring the adorable couple of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, it might have seemed ever so slightly whimsical for some, but it received tremendous reviews (as TIME's Richard Corliss put it, the grade of A stood for adorable). You can't fail to be won over by its charm — see clip below for irrefutable evidence — and the film's expectations/reality scene was surely a contender for scene of the year.
But as much of a game changer as the movie was for Webb, the pressure will go up a notch for him with next year's Spider-Man reboot. The wildly successful director-star combo of Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire is gone, and all eyes will be on Webb and Andrew Garfield (who starred in Fincher's The Social Network and Romanek's Never Let Me Go) to see if they can deliver the goods.