MOVIE REVIEW - The Spectacular Now

I love finding gems in the rough, and the new Indy pic, The Spectacular Now is a gem that shouldn't be missed. But more than likely will be...by most. 

I love walking into movies on occasion without knowing one thing about a movie. That was this.  TSN is a fine movie, that is slickly written, wonderfully acted, brilliantly directed and is one of the best films of this over-done and bloated summer movie season.

TSN is the story of an 18-year old high school senior, Sutter (Miles Teller).  He is a real player, and a shroud of phoniness is all around him.   He drinks way too much, and seems more concerned about his next minute rather than anything up the road.  He is dating Cassidy (Brie Larson) and she is the most popular girl in the class.  After this goes wrong, he meets Amy (Shailene Woodley) who is the Jane Plain of the school.   But Amy is amazingly real, sweet, and has never been down the "boy road" before.  She is insanely vulnerable and she falls in love with the pompous Sutter.

He treats her well at times, and badly at times, but always seems to make it up to her, mostly by her good nature.  He is torn between his hot sexual feelings for Cassidy and his real heartfelt feelings for Amy that he doesn't really understand.  Sutter and Amy face a ton of real life troubles at home as well.  Each are products of amazingly dysfunctional and broken homes.  Sutter has tons of issues that he feels inside he doesn't have to deal with, but in the end decides he wants to, because of Amy.  So Sutter decides to take them on, head on.  And in the will he decide that the future is worth thinking about, and not just the now?  Can he face his troubles, and is Amy the missing piece?

This movie is simply splendid and should not be missed.  This is a dead on accurate portrayal of tons of teens today and the load they carry, most of the time to no fault of their own.  What this movie really does very well, is not get the teens off the hook.  They are fallible and that is its strong suit.  But it dares to say that even though much of what can go wrong with young people is out of their control, what lies ahead for them one way or another is up to them, and is squarely in their control.  In fact, it is an unpleasant truth that teens today hate to hear, but it is so.

This is one of the best scripts of the year, and is told perfectly.  The beauty of this movie, is its honesty.  In life, we all are at fault at times, and life is messy but worth it.   This is very funny at times, very moving at times, and sad, tragic and uplifting all at the same time.  This movie proves that growing up has always been tough, no matter who you are.  This is highly identifiable no matter your age, you have been where Amy and Sutter are in one way or another.

Teller has made a series of teen bad boy movies, and this is a huge step up.  He looks like a regular kid and here he is terrific in this very large role.  And Woodley is amazing.  How difficult a role was this.  This could possibly be the best Plain Jane performance I have ever seen.  She is perfectly cast, and gives one of the best supporting performances of the year in any movie.

I know this is in limited release, but this is worth a trip to see.  The star of this movie is the movie.  Well done in every single regard.  Accurate, and eye opening, skillfully told and simply sensational.

The Spectacular Now.   Yes, a must see.