Tagline:
To hell with tomorrow. To hell with all problems and barriers. Nothing matters but the spectacular now.

Wide Release Date:
August 2, 2013

Directed by:
James Ponsoldt
Screenplay by:
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
Based on the novel by:
Tim Tharp
Produced by:
Tom McNulty, Shawn Levy, Michelle Krumm, Andrew Lauren

Starring:
Miles Teller
Shailene Woodley
Brie Larson
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Bob Odenkirk
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Kyle Chandler

PREGAME THOUGHTS

I’ve never heard of this movie before. During my current coming-of-age story fixation, The Spectacular Now was recommended for anyone who was a fan of The Way Way Back and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, both of which I greatly enjoyed.

This one is supposed to lean more toward the romantic side of things, which makes me wary of sappiness. Otherwise, bring it.

THE 600(ish)-WORD SYNOPSIS

Local douchebag Sutter Keely (Miles Teller, a kid with the worst name this side of the Mississippi) is writing the essay portion of his college application and reminisces upon who he is and what he wants to get out of life. His entire senior year of high school consisted of slacking off (especially during his math class, much to his teacher Bubs from The Wire‘s chagrin), drinking, partying, and fuckin’. His girlfriend Cassidy (Brie Larson) breaks up with him, which he finds appropriate to write in his essay that it was the worst thing to happen to him in his life.

After getting blackout drunk one night, he wakes up the next morning on Shailene Woodley‘s lawn. She’s Aimee Finecky and she’s going to be the non-manic non-pixie sorta-dream girl who gets Sutter to straighten up and fly right! She helps him find his car and gets her on his mind. He asks her to help him with geometry and is intrigued by their interests. They hit it off.

“So… do you like anime?… *adjusts fedora brim* …m’lady?”

The next day, Sutter invites Aimee to party by the lake and they chat it up a little bit. She has never had a boyfriend and is despondent about having to skip college in order to stay home and help her mother. Sutter is like “fuck that noise, lady” and tells her she should follow her path. Then they kiss.

Once Sutter learns that he accidentally got too drunk and asked Aimee to the prom, he starts avoiding her and visits Cassidy at her house. She tells him to move on from her already. Sutter takes Aimee to dinner at his sister Holly‘s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) house, where Aimee opens up fully about her dad’s premature drug-induced death. Sutter’s feelings for her increase, and after some teenage fuckin’ he admits to her that his mom (Jennifer Jason Leigh) kicked his dad (Kyle Chandler) out of the house when he was nine. Both his mother and his sister know his number and know where to find him, which pisses him off. He arranges to go visit him with Aimee.

Hi, Pops! I gots me a little arm candy!

The encounter is awkward and very disappointing. Kyle Chandler makes the most of the visit, and you can tell he sort of tried, but he sucks and isn’t cut out to be a dad and disappoints Sutter incredibly when he finds out he left on his own volition, not because his mother kicked him out.

On the way home, Sutter gets so mad about this revelation and the visit in general that he takes it out on Aimee (after she tells him she loves him, mind you), pulls over, and kicks her out of the car. She gets clipped by a passing car and gets sent to the hospital. Sutter thinks she killed her. She doesn’t actually die.

This was Sutter’s wake up call. The boss at his part-time job (Bob Odenkirk!) offers to keep him on during layoffs if he promises to avoid alcohol on the job. He honestly admits that he can’t make that promise and he quits his job. After a few more tumbles toward rock bottom, he restarts his college application essay to change his answer to the hardest thing to deal with in his life: himself. He vows to live in the moment. The spectacular now.

The Spectacular Bob Odenkirk.

Aimee, heartbroken, spends the rest of the summer with Sutter. She starts college in Philadelphia after, presumably, standing up to her mother. Sutter is seen waiting for her outside after one of her classes. Aimee just sort of smiles, and the end of the movie is left ambiguous.

TOM’S DISCUSSION CORNER

TOPIC 1 — The Ending and Sutter’s Growth

The moviegoer has to take a stance on whether or not Sutter and Aimee should get back together. I’m in the camp of “hard no”, mostly based on Sutter’s weird self-deprecating outburst in the car before he almost killed Aimee. Her hesitant non-smile at the end looked more like an awkward facial expression, suggesting many different possibilities. That she’s over him. That she has a new boyfriend. That she pooped her pants in public. All of these are valid presumptions.

As for Sutter, he blew it. BUT, he showed an decent amount of maturation in spite of his clear selfishness and alcoholism. He starts off as a huge douchebag and ended the movie as a smaller douchebag! He has gained the tools to keep growing, and he owes it to Aimee to let her follow her own path without any of the possible drama that will inevitably still ensue with Mr. College Application Essay over here. Let’s not forget, again, that he flipped out and caused her to get hit by a car. Totally unchill.

MUH GIRLFRIEND, WAHHHH

TOPIC 2 — Sutter’s Dad

I thought the most compelling scenes in the film revolved around Sutter’s dad, Tommy. Just your typical alcoholic deadbeat. No redeeming qualities, no remorse. Lookin’ like shit.

Everything from Tommy’s complete discomfort talking to Sutter over the phone, to his complete discomfort when Sutter and Aimee arrive, to his unapologetic honesty about being a dickhead made the movie for me. Usually, Kyle Chandler plays some really good dad-type dad characters. Some good dad shit. I can only think of Friday Night Lights, but I’m SURE he does the dad thing often. Right? He looks like he dads around.

Luckily, I don’t have a personal frame of reference for Sutter’s position. All I can do is empathize and try to see it from his point of view. I suppose Sutter is young and didn’t expect to learn the hard way that his dad is a deadbeat. He must have seen it coming even a little bit, considering both his mother and sister have access to Tommy’s phone number and have both showed concern for Sutter contacting him. At all.

Sutter looked so hopeful for a bit of time there, but Kyle Chandler shit all over him. He shit all over his face. Right in the mouth. That’s not something one recovers from so quickly! No wonder Sutter got mad and almost got Aimee killed! Did I mention that yet?

Wanna throw the ol’ pigskin around, cowboy? I can let you have my last cigarette.

IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

At one point during preproduction, the script began to change. Shailene Woodley was worried that the new rewrites would make the story less honest, and at one point even called Miles Teller to tell him that she was thinking of dropping out. Teller managed to convince her to stay on the movie, and the rewrites never happened.
Oh man, imagine the whole thing falling apart because of Shailene Woodley. They would’ve needed to find another attractive girl-next-door type with a milquetoast personality! It’s too bad those don’t exist anywhere else in the universe.

After The Descendants (2011), Shailene Woodley had not been given any scripts she was passionate about making and had seriously considered dropping out of acting to pursue another career. Thankfully this project came her way and she fell in love with it.
Oh no, we could’ve lost Shailene Woodley to the ages! What a tragedy!

The sex scene was shot in a single, unbroken take that lasts well over two minutes.
Well over two minutes! My boy Miles Teller killing it in the premature ejaculation game! They grow up so fast.

This was the last film Chicago-Sun Times film critic Roger Ebert gave a 4 star rating to.
This is an actually interesting bit of trivia, and it’s too bad that Roger Ebert fell into a volcano shortly after his review of The Spectacular Now.

What did you get me? …oh, a purity ring? That’s weird! Thanks, I guess!

IS IT WORTH A WATCH?

Sure. It’s not really a feelgood coming-of-age film, and the whether or not the ending is actually positive is left ambiguous, but you can come for the romantic plot and stay for the incredible character growth shown in Sutter. Not so much Aimee, she’s basically the same the whole time. But Sutter, oh man, that guy was a real douche and I hated him! And then he was less of a douche and I didn’t hate him anymore! If that isn’t character growth, I don’t know what is.