The Spectacular Now (2013)

A hard-partying high school senior's philosophy on life changes when he meets the not-so-typical "nice girl." Sutter Keely lives in the now. It's a good place for him. A high school senior, charming and self-possessed, he's the life of the party, loves his job at a men's clothing store, and has no plans for the future. A budding alcoholic, he's never far from his supersized, whiskey-fortified thirst-master cup. But after being dumped by his girlfriend, Sutter gets drunk and wakes up on a lawn with Aimee Finecky hovering over him. She's different: the "nice girl" who reads science fiction and doesn't have a boyfriend. While Amy has dreams of a future, Sutter lives in the impressive delusion of a spectacular now, yet somehow, they're drawn together.

Review:

he Spectacular Now is a deep exercise in emotion and character, and a bold step in the right direction for teen films, which are becoming decidedly more naturalistic, involved, and human. Last year, we had the wonderful Perks of Being a Wallflower, and not two months ago we had the strong and touching The Way, Way Back. Now we are graced with such a wonderful look at a teenage relationship plagued by fear, alcohol, understanding, nervousness, and uncertainty that it almost hurts. Miles Teller will be a recognizable face for some. He appeared in a faceless role in 21 & Over this year, which I regarded as tasteless comedy that was so heavily focused on partying and excessive raunchiness that it became almost as nihilistic as Project X. Here, he is the same character but given a personality and a believable, realistic touch. Teller plays Sutter Keely, a high school senior obsessed with living in the moment. He parties hard, drinks constantly, anything from keg-beer to hard liquor concealed in a flask, works in men's clothing, and discards the future as something that will just happen. He is woken up on the lawn of someone's home by Aimee Finecky (Shailene Woodley), a pleasantly average girl who is up early at 6am getting ready to do her mother's paper route. Aimee's mother has been controlling her for a long time, even potentially corrupting her college ambition because her idea of "living in the now" is paying bills and keeping the home straight. Sutter and Aimee strike an immediate friendship. He introduces her to the luxury and openness of partying and drinking. She introduces him to the wonderful and eclectic world of Manga. The film beautifully illustrates how both parties were welcomed into a different little world they would've never experienced if it wasn't for the other person and Sutter's alcoholic tendencies. But overtime, Sutter's alcoholism worsens. He clearly drinks to get drunk, but remains functional when doing it. He starts to shun his relationship with Aimee, being fully aware he is bad news and not the guy she needs. She has long accepted his drinking habits because she can see the person he is at the core - caring, harmless, and immensely loving. Meanwhile, his ex-girlfriend comes in the picture every now and then. Her name is Cassidy (Brie Larson) and - rather than being a typical queen bee or spiteful ex-girlfriend - it's evident she ended their relationship based on the frustrating inertness Sutter posses. He doesn't have a plan and the only thing he can do when you ask him about it is take a sip out of his personalized flask. There's no future there. Teller and Woodley have impeccable chemistry here. Woodley, once more, refines her role as the supporting girl with natural beauty in more ways than one like she did in Alexander Payne's The Descendants. They are only guided by the smooth, sensitive direction of James Ponsoldt, whose last film, simply titled Smashed, took a look at a young, first grade schoolteacher who was beginning to fall prey to alcoholism. Her addiction became so brutal, she lies and says her incident of throwing up in class is related to her untrue pregnancy and not a piercing hangover from the night before. The film showed how one's addiction to the bottle can compromise their life. Ponsoldt's follow-up effort is more about showing how the bottle (or flask in this case) can compromise a perfectly beautiful friendship. Writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber make this a surprising tone piece, one that is more concerned with the loquacious behavior of teens rather than the raunchy behavior. A tremendous scene focuses on Sutter and Aimee walking away from a keg-party on the beach, deep into the woods, talking about their homelife and their favorite things in life. The scene is a four-to-five minute static shot and develops character nonchalantly and not forcefully, allowing for the naturalism to just sneak up on the audience. This isn't the only scene with Sutter and Aimee that tackle beautiful touching and realistic instances. Take for example the scene where they go to have sex. "Take your shirt off" she innocently says, and after he does - successfully exposing an ordinary male body - she follows, exposing another ordinary body and a white bra. When he giggles, just because of the circumstances, she tenderly covers up her bare midriff with her arms, to which he responds by lightly removing them from her stomach. They proceed to have sex in a blissfully unpredictable manner, deeply fixated on the bodies and the intimacy - not the nudity. This is another bold instance that will resonate and be remembered by teens more-so than the average sex scene in comedies, where breasts and hilarity are the only thing that matters. The Spectacular Now's one minor missteps results when it gets too caught up with Sutter's story of being raised by a single mother who closets information on his father that it kind of forgets that Aimee is a major character here as well. We know Aimee's mom is controlling because she says so, but never do we see Aimee stand up to her or take action to her mother's dictative qualities. Equal humanization would've been divine seeing that humanization alone is one of the film's major goals. The film concludes on yet another bold note, cementing that Neustadter and Weber didn't want to say too much. Much of the film operates on deep, character emotion, so attaching an ending that neatly packages things up would've been a complete contradiction to the film's focus. I initially thought some would be upset with the film's ending, saying it cheats the audiences, but if they were brave enough to seek out a smaller film of this magnitude, they shouldn't be disgruntled that it plays different instruments than other films of the same genre.

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