The Spectacular Now

The Spectacular Now
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Ponsoldt
Produced by	Tom McNulty Shawn Levy Michelle Krumm Andrew Lauren
Screenplay by	Scott Neustadter Michael H. Weber
Based on	The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
Starring	Miles Teller Shailene Woodley Brie Larson Mary Elizabeth Winstead Bob Odenkirk Jennifer Jason Leigh Kyle Chandler
Music by	Rob Simonsen
Cinematography	Jess Hall
Edited by	Darrin Navarro
Production company	Andrew Lauren Productions 21 Laps Entertainment Global Produce
Distributed by	A24[1]
Release dates	January 18, 2013 (2013-01-18) (Sundance) August 2, 2013 (2013-08-02) (United States, limited)
Running time	95 minutes[2]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.5 million[3]
Box office	$6.9 million[4]

The Spectacular Now is a 2013 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by James Ponsoldt, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber and starring Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Tim Tharp. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it garnered critical acclaim.

Plot

Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is a high school senior, charming and self-possessed. He is the life of the party and loves his job at a men's clothing store. However, he has no plans for the future and is a budding alcoholic, which causes his girlfriend, Cassidy (Brie Larson), who is unable to cope, to dump him. Drinking to numb his pain, Sutter passes out on a stranger's lawn, but is awakened the next morning by Aimee Finicky (Shailene Woodley), a girl who wears no makeup and reads science fiction and manga during her free time. Sutter helps her with her paper route and ultimately invites her to lunch and asks her to teach him geometry to get closer to her.

Sutter invites Aimee to a party, but temporarily loses interest when he sees Cassidy. Sutter asks her to have a drink with him, but Cassidy soon leaves with her boyfriend Marcus (Dayo Okeniyi), so Sutter returns to Aimee. The two go for a walk, where Sutter introduces Aimee to alcohol and Aimee brings up getting accepted into a college in Philadelphia, though she does not feel she will be able to go as she must take care of her demanding mother. Sutter teaches Aimee to stand up to her mom and the two kiss.

When he wakes up the next morning, Sutter realizes that he asked Aimee to prom while drunk and instant messages Cassidy to hang out. Cassidy breaks down, tearfully telling Sutter that she can no longer avoid her future and that she needs to grow up, even if he does not. Marcus later confronts Sutter about what is going on with him and Cassidy, though Sutter reassures him that Cassidy is done with him. Marcus says she does not like him in the way she liked Sutter, but Sutter tells him that he should not try to be like him. Marcus thanks Sutter for his advice.

Sutter, lacking the commitment to take Aimee to prom, avoids her until Aimee's friend Krystal (Kaitlyn Dever) tells him not to treat Aimee badly as she is a genuinely good person. Sutter, taking her advice, asks Aimee to dinner with his married sister Holly (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), where Aimee talks frankly about the death of her father and her dreams of a perfect marriage, charming everyone, including Sutter. Sutter and Aimee begin to get serious, having sex for the first time, and Sutter buys Aimee a flask as a gift when they attend prom. Despite a moment where Sutter dances with Cassidy, their night goes well, and she tells him that she stood up to her mom and is going to Philadelphia, inviting him to live with her and attend a junior college.

After numerous attempts to get his father's phone number from his mom (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Sutter retrieves it from his sister and plans to spend a day with his dad. Bringing Aimee with him, they meet him at a motel just as he is leaving for the bar, inviting the two to join him. Sutter's father (Kyle Chandler) shares similar hedonistic views of life as Sutter, but after revealing that he left his mother (instead of being kicked out as Sutter had thought previously), he leaves to go off with a woman. Sutter is forced to pay the tab and wait for his dad to return, but after waiting for an hour, they return to the bar to see that Sutter's dad has forgotten about them and is back to drinking with his friends. Aimee attempts to comfort Sutter, confessing her love for him, but Sutter, angry and drunk, snaps at her and forces her to get out of the car, where she is hit by an oncoming car.

Aimee comes out with only a broken arm and forgives Sutter for the incident, but the experiences with his father has clearly damaged Sutter as his drinking worsens. After graduation, Cassidy informs Sutter she is going to California with Marcus. Sutter suggests he pay them a visit, but Cassidy declines, telling him she must stay out of his influence for her own good. His boss, Dan (Bob Odenkirk) tells him that he will be letting go of one of his clerks and informs Sutter that he wants him to work at the store, but Sutter must promise never to become intoxicated again. Sutter honestly states that he does not feel he is capable of keeping such a promise and shakes a disappointed and concerned Dan's hand. He then goes out for a night at the bar, leaving a heartbroken Aimee to get on the bus to Philadelphia by herself.

Sutter crashes into his mailbox after a night of heavy drinking and tearfully breaks down in front of his mom, saying he is exactly like his father and that he is an awful person, but his mother assures Sutter he is not like his father as he has the biggest heart of anyone she knows. Finally able to recognize that he is his own greatest limitation, Sutter finishes his college application and commits himself to becoming a more mature and responsible person. He drives to Philadelphia and finds Aimee as she is leaving class. As the two stare at each other, the screen cuts to black.

Cast

• Miles Teller as Sutter Keely
• Shailene Woodley as Aimee Finecky
• Brie Larson as Cassidy
• Jennifer Jason Leigh as Sara Keely
• Kyle Chandler as Tommy Keely
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Holly Keely
• Dayo Okeniyi as Marcus
• Andre Royo as Mr. Aster
• Bob Odenkirk as Dan
• Kaitlyn Dever as Krystal
• Masam Holden as Ricky
• Gary Weeks as Joe
• Whitney Goin as Mrs. Finecky
• Nicci Faires as Tara

Production

Principal photography commenced in Athens, Georgia in July 2012 and wrapped a month later.^[5] While the novel is set in Oklahoma, director James Ponsoldt preferred to shoot in his hometown;^[5] he explained:

The script didn't identify where it was set – the setting just wasn't a big city. It felt vaguely suburban – or kind of like a college town. It seemed to me that the script had a sense of place in the way that Breaking Away did. Athens was such an obvious candidate as a setting to shoot the film in – and it was really the only place I wanted to make the film. Filming in Athens was incredibly meaningful to me. We shot in the streets and houses of my childhood!^[6]

Reception

Box office

The Spectacular Now opened in limited release in North America on August 2, 2013 in 4 theaters and grossed $197,415 with an average of $49,354 per theater and ranking #30 at the box office. The film's wide release was in 770 theaters and it ended up earning $6,854,611 domestically and $63,980 elsewhere for a total of $6,918,591, above its estimated $2.5 million budget.^[7][8]

Critical response

The Spectacular Now was warmly received at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Based on 151 critic reviews, it obtained a "Certified Fresh" score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 7.8 out of 10. The critical consensus states "The Spectacular Now is an adroit, sensitive film that avoids typical coming-of-age story trappings."^[9] The film also has a score of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[10]

The late Roger Ebert, in one of the last reviews he filed, awarded the film a full four stars, stating in his review:

Here is a lovely film about two high school seniors who look, speak and feel like real 18-year-old middle-American human beings. Do you have any idea how rare that is? They aren't crippled by irony. They aren't speeded up into cartoons. Their sex lives aren't insulted by scenes that treat them cheaply [...] What an affecting film this is. It respects its characters and doesn't use them for its own shabby purposes. How deeply we care about them. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are so there. Being young is a solemn business when you really care about someone. Teller has a touch of John Cusack in his Say Anything period. Woodley is beautiful in a real person sort of way, studying him with concern, and then that warm smile. We have gone through senior year with these two. We have known them. We have been them.^[11]

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times also gave the film four stars out of four, describing it as "the best American movie of the year so far". He summarized his review by adding: "The Spectacular Now will bring you back to that time in your life when you were trying to soak in every moment, because everyone told you there's nothing better than your last year in high school."^[12] In The Hollywood Reporter, critic Todd McCarthy called the film "a sincere, refreshingly unaffected look at teenagers and their attitudes about the future... Ordinary in some ways and extraordinary in others, The Spectacular Now benefits from an exceptional feel for its main characters on the parts of the director and lead actors."^[13]

Dana Stevens of Slate also praised both the leads, commenting that "Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley have such a disarmingly direct and spontaneous connection as actors that Sutter and Aimee almost immediately come to seem like a couple you've known (or been part of) at some point in your life... The Spectacular Now captures the beauty and scariness and lacerating intensity of first love".^[14] Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman described it as "one of the rare truly soulful and authentic teen movies." He compared it favorably to Say Anything... and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, saying "like them, it's a movie about the experience of being caught on the cusp and truly not knowing which way you'll land."^[15]

In Variety, critic Rob Nelson wrote: "The scars and blemishes on the faces of the high-school lovers in The Spectacular Now are beautifully emblematic of director James Ponsoldt's bid to bring the American teen movie back to some semblance of reality, a bid that pays off spectacularly indeed."^[16] Cinema Blend called it "the rare Sundance coming-of-age story that feels like it matters",^[17] adding: "The Spectacular Now is an instant MVP of the first half of the festival, with potential breakout hit written all over it... you'll be hearing a lot about this one down the road, and it's got the goods to live up to the hype." Phoebe Reilly of Spin called the film "the next great teen movie" and "truly remarkable". She acclaimed Teller and Woodley for their "absurdly natural performances", with Sutter "uniquely irresistible" and Aimee "a perfect repertoire of nervous giggles and awkward mannerisms."^[18]

Accolades

At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, The Spectacular Now received the Special Jury Award for Acting.^[19]

References

External links

• Official website
• The Spectacular Now at the Internet Movie Database
• The Spectacular Now at Box Office Mojo
• The Spectacular Now at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Spectacular Now at Metacritic