By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: James Ponsoldt
Starring: Brie Larson | Dayo Okeniyi | Jennifer Jason Leigh | Kyle Chandler | Miles Teller | Shailene Woodley
Country: united_states
Year: 2013
Running time: 95
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1714206/reference
Jason says: “It’s hard enough to try to review the first films to play a festival, writing a paragraph at a time between other screenings, but something like THE SPECTACULAR NOW makes it even more difficult. It’s does almost nothing wrong and the cast is pretty great. It’s easy enough to recommend, though, managing to be quite good if not quite, well, spectacular.
“Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) was just dumped by his girlfriend Cassidy (Brie Larson) over something that seems innocent enough, although given how quickly she’s paired up with star athlete Marcus (Dayo Okeniyi), she might have just been looking for an excuse. Upset, Sutter gets drunk, and is found passed out the next morning by Aimee Finicky (Shailene Woodley) on her paper route. They start hanging out together.
“Kids grow up so fast today. Time was, you’d get movies about troubled teenagers and movies about alcoholics driving their lives into the ground, and they’d be separate movies made for separate audiences. This two-for-one deal of a movie hardly chronicles a new phenomenon, and it’s certainly not the first time I’ve seen teenagers drinking on-screen, but I don’t know if it’s ever been so central to the characters rather than just a reaction to other things going on. In fact, it still mostly plays that way – it’s not about people feeling like they need to help Sutter get sober, so the audience will tend to look elsewhere for some other root to his issues until it eventually becomes clear that this is something pervasive, not a weekend-binging reaction.
“That’s actually an impressive feat on director James Ponsoldt’s part, though I’m sure that there are some fairly clear signals in there as well. He and writers Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber (forking from Tim Tharp’s book) manage to build Sutter’s story up without a lot of big events, sort of disguising it as a more typical teen movie where a kid takes up with a less-popular girl in order to make his ex-girlfriend jealous only to find that the new girl is actually pretty awesome. At times, this disguise actually works a bit too well – the filmmakers need to spell out Sutter’s better nature later on because they haven’t been able to demonstrate it as well as they might have liked – but it also doesn’t shackle them; they manage to break free and jump over bits that would serve as filler.
“Having a couple very good young actors in the lead roles doesn’t hurt the situation at all. Miles Teller is just right or very close to it as Sutter, finding a good spot where audiences can tell that the character is covering up how low he feels constantly without seeming maudlin or inappropriately manic. There’s weight his performance, but not enough to capsize the picture. Shailene Woodley does something similar, kind of forcing her way into co-lead status despite being just one of many characters mainly defined by how they relate to Sutter. There’s a sweetness to Aimee that can initially seem like immaturity or innocence, especially considering the way she falls in with Sutter’s bad ideas, but it proves a solid foundation for someone interested on her own. Brie Larson winds up being given – and delivering – much more than expected as Cassidy, and it’s kind of a shame that Jennifer Jason Leigh isn’t given quite as much chance to make an impression throughout the movie as Sutter’s mother as Kyle Chandler is in a concentrated sequence as the father.
“Huh, maybe THE SPECTACULAR NOW has more to recommend it than might initially appear to be the case. It doesn’t necessarily merit inclusion on the list of great coming of age films – that genre tends to blur together so much that standing out by just being well-executed is tough – but it’s a nice example, with a pair of actors worth keeping an eye on. 4 cats
“Seen 24 April 2013 in Somerville Theatre #1 (Independent Film Festival Boston, DCP?).”
Chris says: “How do you tell a love story that doesn’t sound like every other love story? Do you center it on a coupling so odd that it could only happen in the movies (HAROLD AND MAUDE), play around with stylistic tropes (such as 500 DAYS OF SUMMER did with structure and quirks like an unexpected musical sequence) or set it against an exotic backdrop? THE SPECTACULAR NOW does none of these things—it simply focuses on two memorable characters and two exceptional performances that drive the film, if not to greatness, then at least towards something you’ll remember after you’ve seen a dozen more love stories.
“The two leads are Miles Teller, who masterfully pulled off a tricky supporting role in RABBIT HOLE, and Shailene Woodley, who won raves for her supporting part in THE DESCENDANTS. As Sutter Keeley, a party-hearty class clown high school senior, Teller is both charismatic and vulnerable, proving he can unquestionably carry a film. As Aimee Finicky, the sci-fi reading ‘nice girl’ he falls in love with, Woodley looks and acts like an average, everyday teen but since she conveys so much complexity beneath that exterior, she’s thrilling to watch. They have an easy but rarely obvious chemistry and their problems (Sutter’s budding alcoholism and beneath-the-surface self loathing, Aimee’s hesitancy to stand up to her demanding mother) read as believable and relatable.
“The film only falters whenever it swerves away from this central relationship, although scenes with Jennifer Jason Leigh (Sutter’s mom) and Bob Odenkirk (his boss) duly flesh out Sutter as a character beyond his likable slacker persona. Unfortunately, an extended sequence with Sutter’s deadbeat dad (an unrecognizable, disheveled Kyle Chandler) feels like it’s from a different movie and it concludes with an unnecessary melodramatic twist. Still, director James Ponsoldt (SMASHED) doesn’t let that get in the way of a solid, admirable open-ended finale in which Sutter comes to terms with how he’s holding himself back and realizes just what he can achieve—it’s not particularly spectacular, but remarkably honest at the very least. 4 cats
“(This film screened at the 2013 Independent Film Festival Boston)”