A monotonous static growls in the margins of most movies about
teens: sex, drugs, prom, Friday-night football, cafeteria cliques, weekend
keggers. It’s a rare film that can find a way to work without, or against, that
well-established mantra. And The
Spectacular Now is a very rare achievement, indeed.
Simply put: it is a uniquely written, marvelously acted and
confidently directed film about the perils of falling in love when your compass
still hasn’t found true north. It is one of the finest movies this year. And
yes, it’s spectacular.
It is directed by James Ponsoldt, an up-and-coming director with
an endless knack for framing the delicate and profound beauty that bubbles up
from within the madness of addiction. He also believes in long, unbroken shots
that allow his actors to, you know, act. In last year’s Smashed, a devastating portrait of alcohol abuse, Ponsoldt spun
sympathy and dread around a terrifyingly young woman consumed by drink. Here,
less than a year later, he again focuses on alcoholism, but also on another
unfortunate addiction: people.
In comes Sutter Keely, the most popular student at his high
school. He’s one of those kids with so much confidence that he needs a second
backpack to carry it all around in. He’s constantly winking, smirking, plotting
… at any moment he could explode from his seat and pinball down the locker-lined
hallways. He loves the attention that swirls around him; he thrives off of it. Popular
teens in movies are portrayed as cruel bullies, but not Sutter — he’s sincere
and gentle, kind even. In the opening reveal, we see him in all his glory: at a
party, beer in hand, diving into a pool with all his clothes on. His
girlfriend, another elite member of his high school, has dumped him because he
always lives in the now, never thinking of his — or their — future. He leaves the party and sneaks into a nightclub, where the warm blanket of bodies at the bar and on the dancefloor give him comfort.
We truly meet Sutter the next morning. He’s passed out on a
stranger’s lawn and he can’t find his car. Aimee, the newspaper delivery girl,
finds him and lets him tag along until he gets his bearings. They strike up a
friendship and then later a geometry study group. When she invites him into her
room, he admires her nerdiness: unicorn figurines, kitten posters and Japanese
manga on the bookshelves. The next day, in a sweet scene, he buys and starts
reading one of the books on her shelf. She smiles — beams, actually — when she
recognizes his innocent effort to learn more about her interests.
He invites her to an outdoor party, where they walk through the
woods and kiss. They begin a dazzling and dizzying relationship, one that looks
like a desperate rebound to Sutter’s friends, like a fire hazard to Aimee’s. Of
course it looks odd: he is hyper and unrelenting, and she is fragile and
studious. Somehow they balance each other out.
I could stop there and you’d think this were a romance (it is) or
a relationship drama (that too). But it is volumes more. It’s about teens
confronting their problems with brave faces. It’s about fathers and mothers,
how their shortcomings reflect on their children. It’s about intimacy, but not
so much about sex. It’s also about underage drinking, but without being preachy
and underhanded. Sutter introduces Aimee to hard liquor, even gives her a flask
as a gift. Here’s the honors student who first refused beer now sipping shots between
lunch and fourth period. Their shared habit grows concerning, but the film refuses
to address it further because its very existence is acknowledgment enough.
Mostly, though, The
Spectacular Now is about being young. Sutter and Aimee are so carefree and
likable that you can’t help but think of your own high school experience, back
when the entire world seemed to hang on those first parties, those first
kisses, those first heartbreaks.
This all probably sounds so audaciously simple — and it is — but The Spectacular Now looks upon all this
with a fresh set of eyes and with two remarkable young actors who are capable
of conveying all the doubt, the embarrassment, the confusion and ecstasy that
comes with first loves. Sutter is played by Miles Teller, whose elongated face
and scarred chin do nothing to halt Sutter’s fierce charisma. Sutter walks
through life glowing and he knows it, and Teller captures that essence with a
knock-out performance. Aimee is Shailene Woodley, who played George Clooney’s
daughter in the Hawaiian family drama The
Descendents. Woodley bares her heart here as Aimee, the girl no one looked
twice at until Sutter turned his white-hot spotlight on her. Throughout most of the movie
it looks like Woodley wears little or no makeup, and still she radiates.
This movie is one for the ages, at least as far as high school
movies are concerned. Where Fast Times at
Ridgemont High and Dazed & Confused
were windows into particular points in time, and the teens swarming within, The Spectacular Now is more a window
into the souls of two teens who are increasingly torn about the next step in
their relationship. Aimee yearns for a ranch, a job at NASA and husband very
different from herself (“It keeps things interesting.”) An adult tells her it
sounds like a dream. “I think it’s good to dream,” she says. Sutter thinks only
of the “now” and never the future, and he’s much more complicated, especially
when he comes to learn who his father is. The film has a brutal and honest
exchange between Sutter and his good-natured boss. “If I were your dad this is
where I’d give you a lecture or something,” the boss tells him. Sutter replies
back: “If you were my dad you wouldn’t have to.”
The movie touches on that mantra I discussed earlier, but it doesn't obsess. Prom and graduation come and go so quickly they feel like abbreviations compared to other movies. And even those scenes are turned upside down. Prom, for instance, has a tender moment where Aimee can clearly see Sutter's ex-girlfriend on the dancefloor. She could be jealous and spiteful, but she insists they dance. Maybe she's testing Sutter's love, or maybe just testing her own. Other scenes, including a violent argument with a shocker ending, prove how raw and real this relationship has been written. These aren't your typical teens; they love and lust, argue and bicker, second-guess and self-doubt like real teens. By the end of the film, long after graduation, we have a troubled near-alcoholic kid, who has so many abandonment and daddy issues that he can barely acknowledge the perfectness of the girl who seems ready to right his veering ship. And we also have a love-worn girl who fell for the first guy who laid eyes on her, and he brings her down more often than she lifts him up. These are mesmerizing figures, and also a little tragic.
This is a beautiful movie directed by a fantastic new director
and starring two talented actors playing complexly written teens. The movie
doesn’t reinvent high-school movies, but it does peel down a layer to reveal a
deeper humanity at the core of every teen. Maybe you’ve made some regretful
movie choices this summer — I know have. Do yourself a favor and go see The Spectacular Now, one of the best
movies of the year.
