Review of The Spectacular Now (2013) by Mark D — 06 May 2014

Wow. I'm on a roll with good, if not great, movies. This was fantastic, and has been on my mind since it ended.

The beginning makes it look like it's going to end up being a typical teen sex/romance flik, but it diverges from that pretty quickly. Yes, it has a lot of the hallmarks of the genre, but it rises above almost every other movie about this topic.

I found Sutter annoying, even after he wasn't supposed to be, but that was just his character. It's interesting that the movie chooses to tell the story about a popular kid who really has no idea how others view him.

We get this same perspective, but in a far more interesting way, out of Aimee's story. Shailene Woodly has impressed me before, and she's great here. I do question the idea of her not being seen as attractive by the males of the school. Especially considering she's better looking than Brie Larson, who apparently no one questioned? They never explain why she has such low self-esteem, and can't see her own beauty(in or out). I LOVED that she's a total geek, and was into comics and sci-fi. Geek girls for the win!

I question all the drinking in the movie, and how it goes by with little circumstance, and no one really bothering to talk about it, besides a brief blurb. Sad reality?

This is a great movie. It tells a simply story wonderfully, without resorting to all the stupidity commonly found in movies of this type. One that I will continue to ponder long after I write this.

Highly recommended.