Sometimes, even the large ‘life events’ that are so often trumped up in film and television come and go with barely a flourish. Unsurprisingly, real life is often less stupendous than how it is portrayed in the stories we have come to love: prom, graduation, a first job, striking out on your own…all these moments are treated, refreshingly, with a subtle and healthy dose of reality in The Spectacular Now, which (naturally) focuses on the ‘now’ of it all as opposed to all the hype and anticipation.
Before the press screening, (500) Days of Summer screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who adapted this work from author Tim Sharp’s acclaimed YA novel, appeared to ask us to tweet positive reviews of the film. They mentioned that they had set out to make a film like those of the 80s, suggesting aspirations of creating a John Hughes-like world populated by impressionable and sensitive teenagers bursting on the verge of adulthood. In that pursuit, they failed, but this is not necessarily a bad thing: the smallness of the film speaks to its realistic sensibility and tempered, subtle approach.
Which is not to say these teens aren’t sensitive or impressionable: the two leads, brilliantly played by Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, more than carry the film, with pangs of vulnerability that literally bleed off the screen. Teller, having previously appeared in Rabbit Hole and the Footloose remake, channels a bit of Seth Rogen here, as the school jokester who is equal parts smooth and goofy. With a slurpie cup or flask of alcohol always in hand, we wonder how he got like this, and the one minor detraction of the film is the very, very slow build in answering that question (there is a palpable feeling of waiting for something—anything—to happen somewhere in the middle there). When the answer does come, in the form of a storyline involving his absentee father, another question is raised: Why now? And other than his watershed relationship with Shailene’s character, that question goes largely unanswered.
As for Woodley, her natural quality is utterly winning here: channeling an energy that’s just a touch more complicated than simple ingénue innocence, Shailene continues her streak of good work started in The Descendants. And she has nowhere to go but up, with a bevy of amazing projects coming up. Side note: keep an eye out for these two, Woodley and Teller to be exact, as they are both set to appear in the very hyped film adaptation of Divergent. …We can’t wait either!
—DH