MOVI ES
BY MO LLY TEMP LETO N
THE TEENS ARE
ALL RIGHT
An unfiltered, bittersweet study
in young love
THE SPECTACULAR NOW: Directed by James Ponsoldt.
Screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, based on the
novel by Tim Tharp. Cinematography, Jess Hall. Editing, Darrin Navarro.
Music, Rob Simonsen. Starring Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie
Larson, Kyle Chandler and Jennifer Jason Leigh. A24, 2013. R. 95
minutes. 44426
M
aybe the most bittersweetly delightful thing
about James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now
is the way it captures the feeling of a drawn-
out ending. For Aimee (Shailene Woodley),
Sutter (Miles Teller) and their classmates, it’s
the end of high school, a time when everything is bitingly
vital and yet nothing matters much, since it’s all going to
change in a few weeks anyway. What happens next is of
the utmost importance, but no one really knows what that
next thing will be, least of all Sutter, who has yet to get
around to applying to college. At the movie’s start, he’s
writing a half-assed essay about the worst thing that’s ever
happened to him: getting dumped by his girlfriend,
Cassidy (Brie Larson), a smart blonde who figured out that
Sutter is paying more attention to her and his flask than to
anything resembling a future.
What The Spectacular Now teases out, gently and
lightly, is that Sutter is full of shit: There’s more darkness
in his life than one high school breakup. He’s one of those
easy-breezy kids who has just enough charm to get himself
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out of most trouble and just enough cockiness that you
can almost believe that nothing troubles him. When, the
morning after not-quite humiliating himself at a party, a
classmate he doesn’t recognize fi nds him on a stranger’s
lawn, he takes it in stride. Aimee is out doing her mom’s
paper route, so Sutter comes along for the ride, helping her
throw papers so she’ll help him fi nd his car.
It’s a very clear trade-off, but the relationship that
follows is less tidily balanced, harder to defi ne and paced
to perfection, with a few pauses for Sutter to pine after
Cassidy. Soon Aimee has a fl ask of her own, and the
kids are making deals about their relationships with their
parents: Aimee has to stand up to her mom and tell her
she wants to go to college. Sutter has to get in touch with
his dad (played by Kyle Chandler in a twitchy, nervous
performance that’s so spot-on, it’s uncomfortable to watch).
This is a movie that would fall on its face were it not for
its cast. Its teens look real, unpolished; their speech is dotted
with overused words and nervous giggles, awkward pauses
and uncertain replies. Teller has a weird charisma that was
LOVE IS ALL
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The Spectacular Now opens at the Bijou Friday, Sept. 20.
SHOWTIMES FOR WEEK OF FRI, SEPT 13 - THURS, SEPT 19
AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS (R)
Fri-Tues 3:15, 5:35, 8:00, 10:15
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Thurs 5:35, 8:00, 10:15
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also on display in Rabbit Hole, and Woodley, who’s poised
to inherit Jennifer Lawrence’s teen-movie crown, is so good
as Aimee that it makes the character’s shortcomings even
more frustrating. Aimee is a good-hearted doormat, a mirror,
and the screenwriters (working from Tim Tharp’s novel)
work hard to justify the box the story puts her into.
When things go off the rails, her suffering is due to her
own behavior, which is self-destructive when it comes to
Sutter — but the movie is about Sutter, and what he fi gures
out as a result. Is it fair to want Aimee to be stronger?
Is that asking for The Spectacular Now to be a different
movie? Maybe. (Maybe someday we’ll get the equivalent
fi lm about a teenage girl.) It’s because of their fl aws and
shortcomings that Aimee and Sutter are so recognizable;
it’s because Ponsoldt focuses so closely on these specifi c
teens, and their fears and weaknesses and moments of
bravery, that the movie works so well. Honest, smart and
ugly in turns, it’s a coming-of-age story on a wonderfully
realistic scale, unaffected and perfectly cast. ■
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IN A WORLD... (R)
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MAN OF STEEL PG-13
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THIS IS THE END (DIG) R
11:50, 2:25, 5:00, 7:45
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eugeneweekly.com • September 12, 2013
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