The Spectacular Now

Director: James Ponsoldt
Cast: Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller, Kyle Chandler
Length: 95 minutes
Country: USA

At a time when moviegoers have been disillusioned by the release of terrible teen film after terrible teen film, the Sundance sweetheart The Spectacular Now comes at a crucial time to remind us that there are still stories in the genre worth telling. Adapted from Tim Thorp’s book of the same title, the screenwriting brains behind indie darling 500 Days of Summer (Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber) and director James Ponsoldt manage to portray a sensitive coming-of-age story that finally, thankfully feels genuine.

High school senior Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) lives his life one spectacular moment at a time without any real regard for the consequences. He’s a teenage whirlpool of underage drinking, irresponsibility and no shortage of swagger played to perfection by Teller and while that’s more than enough for him, it isn’t enough for his girlfriend Cassidy (Brie Larson). Following their breakup, Sutter struggles to find the joy in his present – he indulges his alcoholism and pushes his party-going to the limit. Then, one morning, he’s being shaken awake on a front lawn in a neighborhood that doesn’t belong to him. The lawn in fact happens to belong to a classmate from his school he hardly knows, the shy and offbeat Aimee Finickee (Shailene Woodley), who is about to start working her mother’s paper route job. Unable to find his car, Sutter accompanies her on the paper route and the two immediately connect. They begin dating (an entirely ill-advised move: Sutter is most definitely on the rebound) and as their relationship progresses, they find themselves changing and challenging each other – sometimes for the worse and at others for the absolute best.

I could watch Teller and Woodley discuss line spacing in a phone book for half an hour and still be riveted.

Teller and Woodley have incredible onscreen chemistry, I could watch them discuss line spacing in a phone book for half an hour and still be riveted. While the entire cast is to be commended for their performances, Teller and Woodley stand out by miles. Teller taps effortlessly into Sutter’s laddish mentality while simultaneously juggling the character’s self-loathing and addiction, whereas Woodley’s Aimee is the perfect counterpoint to Sutter’s coarse edges; reserved where he is boisterous, malleable to a fault where he is headstrong and the two actors respond beautifully to one another. A particular standout moment in which the two argue explosively on a drive home demonstrates an incredible ability on both their parts to impressively control characters who have both completely lost control, concluding with a sudden and heart-wrenching jolt.

The Spectacular Now is full of clichés but Ponsoldt’s dedication to creating an authentic teenage experience tempers them easily in the pacing and tone of the film; it burns slowly and with careful restraint before building to a destructive climax. Ponsoldt refuses to glamorise Sutter and Aimee’s lives and the film’s greatest strength is its unflinching and sometimes painful honesty communicated in the simplest and most elegant of ways – a plastic cup that Sutter carries everywhere transforms throughout the course of the film into a stark reminder of his alcoholism.

While some people may be frustrated by the film’s ending, I feel it would have ruined the film if it had ended any other way. Life is too complicated for a neat Hollywood ending and Neustadter, Weber and Ponsoldt were keenly aware of that from start to finish. One criticism I do have of the film is that it feels like the intense focus on Sutter swamped Aimee’s storyline (it doesn’t even get resolved), which was a shame as there was real potential there for Woodley’s character to grow into independence. In any case, the film is still one I would highly recommend and is a fresh new direction I hope the teen genre moves towards. It’s past time to cast those vampires into the sun.

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