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.