Movie Review: "The Spectacular Now"

"The Spectacular Now": B+.  Sutter (Miles Teller) is a high school senior not unlike hundreds or thousands of upperclassmen across the country.  He is the beneficiary of protection from two sources, his school and his mother.  His status as a student buys him time before he has to face the world and become a responsible adult.  His mother protects him by taking over sole responsibility for raising him after his parents split, and hiding the truth about his father.  Until such time as he is no longer afforded such protection, Sutter is going to live life to the fullest.  One of his favorite sayings is that the best thing about the "right nows" is that there's another one tomorrow.

While there's no denying Sutter is a good time, his persistent decisions not to take things seriously wear thin on his girlfriend, Cassidy (Brie Larson).  She is also a person who likes to party, but unlike Sutter, she has matured to a level enabling her to see that there will be life beyond high school.  "I want a future," she tells Sutter, "and you can't do that."  Although she'll still have a fondness for Sutter, Cassidy moves on to the class president who also happens to be a stud athlete.

Sutter's constant companion, whether on the job, driving or partying, is a jumbo cup surreptitiously filled whiskey.  His prized possession is a flask, which is never empty.  He meets Aimee (Shailene Woodley) when she discovers him passed out on the front lawn at dawn.  At first blush they make an unlikely pair, she as the responsible college-bound student, he as the inebriated goof who is flunking geometry, a course required for graduation.  The Spectacular Now is mainly the story of Sutter and Aimee's relationship.

Aimee is a smart girl, so we wonder how she could not look upon a relationship with Sutter as ill-fated.  But just as Sutter is representative of many high school senior boys, Aimee is not an atypical girl.  She is attractive in a natural way, smart but not a nerd, friendly but not a partier.  Sutter needs her help with math, yet their time together means more to her than him.  Even though we view some of Sutter's actions as callous -- even cruel -- his charm makes it tough for us to dislike him.  He works on us in the same way he affects Aimee.  Woodley's expressive eyes clearly convey her frequently changing emotions.  I thought she was exceptional in 2011's The Descendants (pre-blog rating of B), in which she plays George Clooney's daughter.  Her work in The Spectacular Now confirms my original prediction that, at the "real life" young age of 21, she is a star in the making.

The movie does have a few weaknesses.  There is one ten minute stretch where the characters utter the word "awesome" approximately a dozen times.  We expect the main characters to speak like high schoolers, but come on.  Didn't the script writers have access to a thesaurus?  And that omnipresent plastic cup of booze.  Why does no one ever suspect that Sutter's drink of choice is something a little stronger than Coke? Generally the adults in this story are either conveniently MIA, oblivious or one-dimensional.  The well drawn teen characters do, however, make up for that.

So we wonder, what will become of Sutter and Aimee when their high school days come to an end?  Do they have a future beyond graduation or are they star-crossed?  The last shot of the film will give you something to chew on.