Skip to main content

The Spectacular Now

Starring: Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley
Directed by: James Ponsoldt
Screenplay by: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
Based on the novel by Tim Tharp

    It looks like we have another teen romance movie on our hands.
    Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is a typical hard partying student.  He's a high school senior who acts like nothing really matters and doesn't care much about anything.  All that changes when he meets Aimee Finicky (Shailene Woodley).  She's the "nice girl", the inexperienced girl; pretty much the exact opposite of Sutter.  All Sutter wants to do is stay in the same spot for the foreseeable future and not do anything productive.  Aimee has goals and dreams that she wants to achieve.  She wants to move to Philadelphia and make a life for herself in the city.  After a while, these plans begin to include Sutter, because the more time they spend together, the more in love she falls with him.  Will he go with Aimee or stay where he is?
    When I first saw the trailer for this film, I thought it would be obvious what I would take away from the movie, to learn how to enjoy the current moment and truly be a part of the now.  But this film did the exact opposite.  It told me to keep dreaming and keep pushing forward.  It tells the story from the perspective of a main character who enjoys the current moment too much, so much so, that he doesn't even think about the future.  
     I like that the main character of this film is someone we might not necessarily want to end up like.  I also like that these are totally 100% normal characters, unlike some of the other teen romance films out there (I won't name any names, but you know who you are).  I'm a believer that romance films such as The Spectacular Now should allow us to picture ourselves in the situation in some way.  I think that's what makes a strong connection between the film and the audience.  
     Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley both deliver strong performances and make for a relatively good screen couple.  There is plenty of good chemistry between them on screen.
     Overall, The Spectacular Now is a good film.  It isn't the happiest of romance movies in that it doesn't have the happiest of endings.  You'll just have to see the movie to find out what happens.
     I give The Spectacular Now a B+.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Magnificent Seven

Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Haley Bennett, and Peter Sarsgaard Directed by: Antoine Fuqua Written by: Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto      Remakes are funny things.  They can go either way.  On one hand, they can be like last year's Mad Max: Fury Road, a film that critics and audiences adore; a film that will live on as a cinematic masterpiece.  Remakes can also go in the direction of this year's rendition of Ben-Hur , one that critics and audiences will likely forget.       The Magnificent Seven some might say is an unnecessary remake.  It's a remake of an original that's based on another film, Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic,  Seven Samurai, in which seven samurai soldiers are hired by a town to keep them safe from raiding bandits.  This time, there are no raiding bandits, and there are not seven sword-wielding soldi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Flight

Starring: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, John Goodman, and Bruce Greenwood Directed by: Robert Zemeckis Screenplay by: John Gatins       For those of you who have any fear of flying, even the tiniest fear, you will never want to fly on an airplane again after seeing this film.       Captain Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) saves a commercial airplane from a truly horrific crash, in which only a few people are killed.  Almost everyone survives, including himself.  The stunt he pulls to save the plane is nothing short of a miracle, but an investigation into the crash reveals something that could send Whitaker to prison.  Not only is he going to be responsible for the people who were killed in the crash (which will send him to prison on manslaughter charges), but he was also found to be drinking the night before and the morning of the flight.       The actual plane crash takes place only twenty minutes or so...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Hunger Games

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth Directed by: Gary Ross Screenplay by: Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins      If reality television hasn't gone too far yet, then this show should definitely make it go too far.      In a futuristic nation called Panem, one boy and one girl are selected from each of the nation's twelve districts to represent them in an annual television event called the Hunger Games.  Of the 24 contestants, only one will survive in this televised fight to the death.      I like the concept of the story.  While this futuristic society seems somewhat simple, it does not seem all that well developed.  It is unknown how this society came into being, even though it is known how the Hunger Games began.      If this film were released last year, I would have hoped it would be nominated for best make-up.  Many of the characters ...
2 comments
Read more