The Spectacular Now

"The Spectacular Now" is a rare coming-of-age film that hits you emotionally like an exhilarating gift. Based on the novel by Tim Tharpe, this is a beautifully honest portrait of two teens falling in love while also figuring out who they are and learning to love themselves. It's one of the most grounded emotionally challenging films that will stand the test of time and be remembered for years. Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is a guy in high school who presents himself as the life of the party who drinks a lot and is someone who thinks he has everything under control and all figured but deep down he's afraid of getting hurt by choosing to live in the moment that he calls the spectacular now. After a fallout with his on and off-again girlfriend Cassidy (Brie Larson) and walking in on her talking to a popular guy at school after thinking they had made up. He then spends the night going to bars drowning his sorrows and then walks down a neighborhood street and falls asleep on someone's lawn and on Saturday morning gets woken up by this not so typical sweet girl Amiee Finecky (Shailene Woodley) who is on her newspaper route and pulls over to make sure he's okay. She knows him from school but he doesn't know her. He offers to help her with her route while she helps him look for his car. Amiee is not some goody two shoes or nerdy, she's just a normal girl who chooses to not have many friends because she's smarter than most of the kids in her high school. She clearly has high ambitions in life and when she meets Sutter she sees such a light in him that she doesn't necessarily allow within herself to express all the time. They're two kindred spirits who couldn't be more different that make each other better just by offering kindness to one another and their bond is so infectious and relatable that you just get lost in it. The writing from Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber is sensational. The duo who wrote "500 Days of Summer" have this way of coming up with dialogue that is so natural and doesn't feel scripted at all. One of the most beautiful things about the script is often times when you're in your first relationship you give a lot of yourself away and you want the other person to change and by wanting that you end up changing yourself and you have to get that low to figure out who you really are but Sutter just sees Amiee for who she is likes her as she is and she sees through all his flaws and likes him for who he is on the inside by the compassion that he shows her. The other great theme this film brilliantly addresses is the effect of addiction something that naturally happens with teens at times through the honest portrayal of just being an 18 year-old. It's the way Sutter feels, the inner conflicts, the crutch he uses through the sadness and pressure; that's what I can relate to -- as can others. It doesn't glorify or condone drinking in any way, it only pulls back the layers of those challenges. Even though he introduces her to alcohol she doesn't go down the dark path he goes down. It's a very realistic portrait of two high school students falling in love, and dealing with heavy issues that many of us have had to survive. I can't stress enough how incredibly genuine the performances are in this film. Teller and Woodley are so believable as these flawed, yet beautiful teenagers that you get a feeling of unease, as if you are clandestinely eavesdropping on them during their most private sweet moments. Their first time being intimate together is one of the most stunningly realistic scenes I've ever seen in any movie. It's very quiet and tender when they start awkwardly laughing and she passionately says to him "I'm so glad that I met you." How they were able to tap into that so effectively, I can't comprehend, but it is so extremely powerful that it makes you realize how incredibly fake most romance films are nowadays and this film shows you how high school students really are. The supporting cast is also incredible from Mary Elisabeth Winstead who plays Sutter's sister Holly who has married this lawyer and has moved on, Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays his loving mom, Kyle Chandler as his selfish estranged father and Bob Odenkirk fresh off of "Breaking Bad" only has a couple of scenes, but he is amazing as this small men's clothing shop owner and Teller's boss. There is one scene in particular, their last together in the movie, that is electrifying and gut-wrenching. I felt the pain so palpably from both lead actors that I had to sit and process after the movie for a few minutes. There have been very, very few movies that realistically portray teens... "Say Anything" comes to mind, but even that has goofy moments that seem tacked on, whereas this film has none. Every, single actor in this movie gives a tour-de-force performance. There are no weak links, and that is very rare. It just doesn't get any better than this. I can't wait to see more from Teller and Woodley and the director, James Ponsoldt.

A star-making turn for leads Miles Teller (Footloose) and Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) is a refreshingly simple take on the complexities and moving parts of the transition into "the real world" and all of its heartbreaks, disappointments, and surprises. While most will comment on Woodley's incredible realism possibly more attractive without makeup than with this film is Miles Teller's. He's got the screen presence of somewhere between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shia Laboeuf. With fantastic supporting roles from Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Coach Taylor (Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler) as a drunk. Its an honest take from the perspective of a high-school partier faced with bleak future and the questions he has to answer before he can grow up. All themes prevalent in a John Hughes film which is the last filmmaker to accurately depict adolescence with the humor, pain and power of "The Spectacular Now. Like your first love, this is one that will linger on you.