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The Spectacular Now Movie Review

The Spectacular Now is a 2013 teen romantic drama film directed by James Ponsoldt and starring Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller. It’s a surprisingly strong coming-of-age flick.

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“I like to think there’s more to a person than just one thing“

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Sutter, a spoilt young man, and Aimee, a studious girl, develop a special bond and fall in love. However, they must overcome the challenges life throws their way, in order to stay together. This movie came out during the Shailene Woodley era and I wonder what happened to this young talented actress. She has pretty much disappeared recently, which is a shame as she was excellent.

In this film, she pretty much depicted a man’s vision of what a perfect adolescent girl is, but she worked as Woodley made her come to life due to her terrific performance. She sold the character’s nervous facial expressions and mannerisms so well.

Miles Teller was also excellent in one of his first breakthrough roles. His Sutter is a pretty familiar character as this extrovert who is always a charismatic womanizer of sorts. But Teller managed to elevate the familiar trappings of his character with a very solid depiction that made him feel very real and authentic. His family backstory is very touching and well explored. This is also a very good performer, one who deserves more strong roles these days.

The Spectacular Now is at its best when focusing on the central relationship between these two young people. The first scenes when they meet were filled with a lot of warmth and playful nature. There is a very tender heart to this movie that functioned best in the second act. The film isn’t technically stupendous, but it’s well written and very well performed.

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The third act did not appeal to me all that much. That accident that they included way too late in the game made this section overly melodramatic. The plot is familiar, but again it’s very well done, proving that having a formula isn’t bad if it’s well executed. I just wished that the ending managed to stick the landing, which didn’t quite happen.