Review of The Spectacular Now (2013) by Gabe C — 02 Jan 2014

Another teenage drama. Greaaaat. No seriously, great.

It had a great theme for these types of movies, growing up. It's been beaten to death I know, but it is really, REALLY well done here. Not just because it's well written, everything is so realistic, I can NOT stress that point enough. This movie is so realistic from it's presentation, to the characters, to the pacing EVERYTHING is true to modern day. The whole movie I was screaming to myself in my mind "YES. This is how high school is!!" It's never to light and never too heavy on the presentations. It's veeeery subtle, it's never in your face about what's going on, and so few words spoken says so much about the characters. It's mostly well written, save for a dodgy ending, but the more than solid directing keeps the movie on track. Solid entertainment. One of the greats this year. My only beef is is resolution of conflict.. there isn't a lot of it. By the end you aren't sure if the kid Sutter had learned his lesson about growing up, not a lot of conflicts are resolved. The end leaves everything up to us.. would Aimee be weak and get back together with him even though he would just disappoint him? Or would she abandon him and leave him with nothing but another year in high school? When you right your characters like this, there's no satisfaction to be had with the ending. The film other wise is perfect.

8 out of 10.