Quick Thoughts on The Spectacular Now

I remember sitting in the movie theater waiting for Sofia Coppola's, The Bling Ring to start playing. The last trailer to play before the film began was a brief, and familiar trailer for The Spectacular Now starring Project X's Miles Teller and The Descendants' Shailene Woodley. "Perks of Being A Wallflower 2?" my best friend scoffed, completely disinterested. I, however, remained intrigued. I had heard about the film's premiere at Sundance that recalled the days of praise experienced by Like Crazy, a film I loved very much.

In the later days, I ended up reading the novel of the same name that the film was based on, a little crestfallen because like my friend, I expected this to have a similar story to Perks. However, what I didn't realize, was that this wasn't a bad thing. It wasn't until 3 months later (today actually) when I sat down to finally watch this movie I had been meaning to catch up for months, that this film was not only different from Perks of Being A Wallflower, but many of the high school teen romance movies we have come to know (and dread) as an audience.

Aimee Finicky (Woodley, delivering a wonderfully diverse follow up to her awards worthy Descendants' performance) is not your average girl, and she's not your average "not your average girl" from a high school movie. She's stunning, but a bit of a nerd. At the same time, she's no Hermione Granger; boys aren't in jaw dropping awe when she arrives at the high school dance all done up for the first time.

Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is that kid from high school that just can't get out of his own way. He's also an alcoholic; he's loaded during nearly every moment of his life, and when he's not, he's thinking about getting loaded. "I live in the now" he says proudly, "We're never going to be as young as we are right now". And that's Sutter's problem, he can't see what's in front of him because he's holding himself back from doing just that.

Aimee could've turned out like the many "nerd gone babe" archetypes done to death before her, and Sutter could've been the John Bender like character we've seen emulated to death since the debut of The Breakfast Club, but never with the same passion or heart. However, the screenplay smartly sidesteps all of the familiar cliches and plot devices that would make a film like The Spectacular Now so trite. Brie Larson's character (Sutter's ex-girlfriend) could've been another "evil popular girl", and the boy she leaves Sutter for could've been the token "tool", and Aimee and Sutter's romance could've been a played out scenario of Sutter using her to get over his ex, and eventually falling for her in the end. But none of this is the way it is.

It's evident these 2 need each other, because as flawed as they may be, they bring a lot of good things to the table. Aimee may be naive and not experienced in romance, in fact she's too trusting and willing to see the good in Sutter even when it's evident he doesn't deserve her, but she sees it when almost no one else does, including Sutter himself, when he needs it the most. And Sutter may not see the big picture, but his heart almost dwarfs Aimee's by comparison; he's willing to give her the push and the courage no one else is giving this shy and meek girl.

These could've been caricatures in another entry in a tired genre. Instead, The Spectacular Now takes familiar territory, and explores new ways of telling these stories. Woodley and Teller make these 2 distinctly different people really connect because they actually connect, instead of making them connect to serve the story. The story takes a back seat to the relationship between these two, and makes us really feel the romance, rather than just show us.

Grade: 8/10