The Spectacular Now

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Last year, we have the spectacular Perks of Being of Wallflower. This year, we have The Way, Way Back and most of all, The Spectacular Now. It is a lovely, heartfelt, sweet, gentle and sincere film. The Spectacular Now focuses on most teen experiences: first love relationship, 'living in the now' attitude towards life, fear of the future, alcohol and family issues. The story is about a charming, crude but troubled boy meets a reserved, shy, naive...yet sweet, smart girl/wallflower and managed to find a connection in each other. As the film progresses, it was shown that they enjoy hanging out together, helping and complementing each other. Sutter, the lead guy, plagued by alcoholism and family issues, must learn to confront his fears and face who he really is and learn what loving someone really means. Aimee, the lead girl, need to learn to stand up for herself against her controlling mother who might be potentially ruining her college future because she's responsible for partially paying the bills. The film may seem to be an average love story, but it carries a genuine believability to it. The film takes the first-love romance seriously but never falls to become the typical weepy Asian melodramas that Koreans are so fond of making. The two lead actors are great on screen, deliver strong convincing performance to let us believe that the love chemistry between them is real and managed keep the audience engaged throughout the film. There are some subtle humor throughout the film as well. What a deeply affecting film this is. It's the best coming-of-age romantic drama comedy film of the year. Rating: 9/10 "But the real challenge in my life, the real hardship, is me. It's always been me. As long as I can remember, I've never not been afraid. Afraid of failure. Of letting people down. Hurting people. Getting hurt. I thought if I kept my guard up and focused on other things, other people...If I couldn't even feel, well, then no harm would come to me. I screwed up. Not only did I shut out the pain, I shut out everything. The good and the bad. Until there was nothing. It's fine to just "live in the now". But the best part about "now" is there's another one tomorrow. And I'm gonna start making them count"

Upon exiting the movie, the guy in front of me was asked by the snack bar manager: "how was your hot dog?" (its a small local theater). His reply without missing a step: "much better than the movie". My voiced comment then was: "I didn't even have a hot dog and it was still better than this movie." A movie about a male, teenage alcoholic who drinks his way through the movie (including classes, work, social life), gives up the big breasted girlfriend for the wall flower and proceeds to turn her into a high school flask toter is not worth the time it takes to park outside the theater. I wish I hadn't believed Peter Travers' review (usually a good source of movie ideas for me)and wasted my time and gas to sit through this pathetic attempt at movie making. Malcolm 1040

Listen, I have been trying to write a decent review. But I just can't. This movie is just senseless. This pretty much sums up the story: -I have a perfect life, I have a perfect girlfriend. -Baby I didn't cheat on you. -Oh hey sweet and shy girl, let's make the most mainstream couple ever. -OMG you're so special. -OMG I told you to get out of my car! -OMG I'm sorry you were almost killed because of me. -I love you so much I will leave you alone in embarrassment. -I will just send an awesome college application, writing the most mainstream things ever, and I'm totally getting in. I see no story and no character, just moody drunk kids who have no idea what they're doing. Weird movie. Don't waste your money.

I found The Spectacular now to be a very refreshing movie to watch. We've all seen the coming of age high school romance blahblahblah thing before, but the film takes you where you didn't expect it to go, and that is one of the qualities that makes it a great experience. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are fantastic, particularly Woodley. I don't know how you can't be a fan of Teller, he is his usual self in this one and adds even more depth to himself. Woodley's as real as it gets in her performance. I didn't notice it until my second viewing in terms of how natural she was, but she was terrific. Those two are already great to cast as leads, but it's always fun when the casting for anything is just all around fantastic. Tamper your expectations a bit because it's all about the leads in this one, but Coach Taylor, Bubbles, and Saul Goodman are great in the limited time they are on screen. I mean, Kyle Chandler, Andre Royo, and Bob Odenkirk. The emotional impact of this film really hit me towards the end, and certain factors are very predominant in the movie that you definitely do not expect. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say take away a lot of the laughs you were expecting, and brace yourself for the feels and a very serious tone. This may damper some who came for this because it's from the dudes who did 500 Days of Summer, but It's still very good and the movie is actually funny in the spots it wants to be. Overall, I think this is absolutely a film you want to see. Where the story goes widens the appeal of this movie by far in my opinion, so if you were just not going to see it or judged it by the trailers, don't. Give it a shot.

The Spectacular Now is a film with great potential that is ultimately unfulfilled. The acting is excellent, especially Shailene Woodley's performance as Aimee, and there are moments that are truly exceptional. The scene where Sutter (played by Miles Teller) and Aimee are throwing newspapers together shortly after meeting feels genuine and provides a believable premise for how these two very different people begin to develop a bond. And the lovemaking scene between them is a wonderfully genuine and poignant depiction of the awkward but tender side of teenage sexuality, free from the typical gratuitous nudity or crude jokes. The film has major shortcomings, though. Too much is told rather than being shown, and Sutter's character never really seems to grow. We are told at the end of the film as he is rewriting his college essay that he now suddenly gets it all and intends to change, but he also quits his job because he can't promise not to come to work "loaded" and crashes his car into his own mailbox while driving drunk shortly before he has this supposed breakthrough. The scene where his mother is telling him how different he is from his father and how he has such a big heart would ring a lot truer if we had seen some of this heart during the preceding 90 minutes of the film. Instead, we are left with his mother telling us at the end of the film about the kind and generous things he did in the third grade instead of being able to witness any sort of similar kindness and generosity in Sutter's behavior. It would take a miraculous leap for the viewer to believe Sutter has really changed to any material extent when he shows up at Aimee's college at the end of the film. Shailene Woodley's Aimee is genuine and lovable, but the viewer can't help but feel she is being sucked into Sutter's destructive and self-centered world and worry for her for the consequences. Aimee's mother supposedly wants to hold her back from leaving home and going to college, even though we never meet this mother and never see the dynamic of this relationship. Perhaps the one arguably positive thing Sutter does for Aimee in the entire story is to encourage her to stand up to her mother about going to college and pursuing her own life, but again, we never see any of this transpire and are only told what happens. There were several lost opportunities in the film to show the audience growth in Sutter's character that would have been much more effective than his telling us in his essay. If the filmmakers really want the audience to believe Sutter has learned something and grown in a meaningful way, some indication that he had acknowledged and was prepared to address his alcoholism is critical. And if we are to believe that he actually loves Aimee, and not just that she is his next best girlfriend option for now after being dumped by Cassidy, we needed to see him demonstrate that love by something more than just giving her a hip flask or showing up at her college at the end. Overall, the film is not an unpleasant experience, and the performances are quite good, but one can't help but feel there was a lost opportunity here for this film to be much more than it is.

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