Review of The Spectacular Now (2013) by Aadityamudhar — 18 Apr 2016

A star-making turn for leads Miles Teller (Footloose) and Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) is a refreshingly simple take on the complexities and moving parts of the transition into "the real world" and all of its heartbreaks, disappointments, and surprises.

While most will comment on Woodley's incredible realism possibly more attractive without makeup than with this film is Miles Teller's. He's got the screen presence of somewhere between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shia Laboeuf.

With fantastic supporting roles from Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Coach Taylor (Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler) as a drunk. Its an honest take from the perspective of a high-school partier faced with bleak future and the questions he has to answer before he can grow up.

All themes prevalent in a John Hughes film which is the last filmmaker to accurately depict adolescence with the humor, pain and power of "The Spectacular Now. Like your first love, this is one that will linger on you.