The Spectacular Now Review

The Spectacular Now

3 stars out of 4

By Brett Takeshita

There's been a resurgence of teen "coming-of-age" films. Nearly all of them have been great (The Kings of Summer and The Perks of Being a Wallflower come to mind). However, The Spectacular Now might just trump them all. With its charismatic leads and grounded naturalism, The Spectacular Now is a powerful high school film that impresses as much as it surprises.

Sutter (Miles Teller) is that kid you either loved or hated in high school. He's super popular and sorta reckless, but he means well. Even when he's goofing off and being a clown, he never jokes out of malice. In fact, he's pretty nice to everyone, even the kids who aren't so cool and popular. He's not the smartest guy around, but hey who cares? After all, he doesn't believe in going to college. He simply is living in the "now." He'll worry about the future later.

As you might expect, there's one serious problem with Sutter: he struggles with alcohol addiction. He tops off his sodas with shots of liquor and can't even really function during the day without being a little buzzed. But you can't blame him for finding comfort in alcohol. His mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) isn't home too often. His sister (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is now married and living with her rich husband. His father (Kyle Chandler) is someone with whom he hasn't spoken in years. What all of this adds up to is a broken home and a damaged family. Sutter feels alone and isolated -- until someone special comes into his life.

Meet Aimee (Shailene Woodley), another girl you might've known in school. She blends in with the crowd. She's subtly pretty and really smart. She's geeky without being off-putting and nice without feeling forced. Most importantly, she is the exact opposite of Sutter. One day, Sutter crashes on her lawn after one crazy drunken night. Aimee awakens him and checks up on him. And as you might expect, they share a magnetic first connection that will lead them on a bumpy but beautiful journey of both life and love.

The Spectacular Now seems like it would be a nice but predictable film, one that is by-the-numbers. Except it isn't. Based on Tim Tharp's novel, the screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber is excellent in that you don't know where it's going. The film moves in surprising directions -- sometimes funny, often tender, and occasionally gut-wrenching -- that keep you off guard. Most impressive about the writing is how rich and real these characters feel. Sutter and Aimee are beautifully written characters that are dazzling in their authenticity and complexity. They feel like real high school kids who are neither perfect little angels nor rambunctious stupid demons. In fact, the teens at the center of The Spectacular Now are the most realistic young adults I've seen in a "coming-of-age" film in many years.

Lending to the realism of The Spectacular Now's characters and world is stunning work from its director and cast. Director James Ponsoldt knows how to build power without manipulation. He directs this film from such a loving place and truly understands exactly how teenagers both act and feel. He utilizes long, uninterrupted takes that make you feel as if you are watching this relationship unfold before your eyes in real time. (One 6-minute long take in which Sutter and Aimee talk at an outdoor party before sharing their first kiss is absolutely phenomenal). He grounds the film in subtlety, yet conveys so much about teenagers becoming adults and also about alcoholism. (Ponsoldt's previous film, the alcoholism drama Smashed, was excellent but less insightful and subtle than this one). Ponsoldt chose to shoot this movie on actual film and with as much natural light as possible, so that the picture quality looks as real as possible. This was such a smart choice in that The Spectacular Now feels like real life. And it's also worth noting that the movie feels timeless. It is effective now, would have been effective in the past, and will undoubtedly be effective in the future.

Ponsoldt is also masterful at drawing out incredible performances. He trusts his actors and lets them bring their own thoughts and words to the table. Miles Teller is an outstanding lead. He is funny and charming when needed but is also capable of going to some dark places that will break your heart. It's good to see more depth from Teller since many feared that he would be pigeon-holed into dumb comedies. Perhaps even stronger than Teller is Shailene Woodley. She proved just how great of an actress she was in The Descendants. But her work here might even be better. Woodley is the definition of lovely. She makes her character so likable and so real, you can't help but fall in love with her. 

The rest of the ensemble cast is uniformly strong. However, the main problem for me with The Spectacular Now is that the film kinda abandons its side characters. The Spectacular Now boasts a supremely talented cast but doesn't use it like it could. For example, at the beginning of the film, we see Sutter with one of his best friends. We watch them chat about girls and about life. However, we don't discover the friend's fate and don't really see much of him for the rest of the film, even though he is quite important during the beginning. Another example is Bob Odenkirk as Sutter's boss. Odenkirk is superb in two pivotal scenes, but I can't help but feel that he could've been in the film even more. His character is so strong yet gets so little screen time. I would've liked more of him on-screen. 

One exception to this notion of underutilization is Kyle Chandler. He only has one scene in the film, and he is outstanding in portraying a damaged and unlikable character (which is so uncharacteristic yet surprising for an actor like Chandler). Chandler shines and makes the most of his single scene.

The Spectacular Now is, quite simply, spectacular. Just when you think it's going to be formula, it surprises you and sneaks up on you. I guarantee that you'll remember these characters and their story for quite some time. The film works as both a beautiful love story and as a dark portrayal of alcoholism. It's gorgeous, stunning, and most importantly, real.