Review of The Spectacular Now (2013) by Henry G — 02 Mar 2016

Sweet, genuine, and driven by pathos Spectacular Now boasts all the seeming qualities of a great coming of age film and yet falls short due to an unredeemable main character. I watched this in theaters and honestly I didn't enjoy Spectacular Now as much as I thought I would which surprised me because I'm an avid fan and often sap for coming of age films and it did so well critically.

I did not hate it either it was a semi heart warming spectacle but really its shortcomings for me are that I never connected to the main actor Miles Tellers Character. Who don't get me wrong brought a profound performance with him and I bitterly enjoyed that he was popular instead of a nerd or outcast like a usual staple of movies in this genre but to me he's still came off more of a Self-important alcoholic fool than a flawed teen with a heart of gold as the movie hopelessly wanted me to feel.

Still the alcoholism was a good touch because it made him more defective as a person and sort of humanized him for me but it wasn't enough to redeem him in fact it maddened me when he refused his job back from Bob Odenkirk's wonderful yet underutilized character.

What saved the movie undeniably for me is the powerfully authentic Shailene Woodley who brought a lot of compassion and genial charm with her character and not to mention she brings a natural sweetness and girl next door feel to everything that you can not help but fall in love with her which I guess is the only way I relate to the protagonist (and his alcoholism ;D).

Brie Larson also deserves honorable mention as always being delightfully complicated and shrewd as Miles's on and off again girlfriend. All in all Spectacular Now is a worthy entry to the genre but not particularly engrossing and endearing as I hoped, save for a few scenes.