Review of The Spectacular Now (2013) by Trevor R — 22 Nov 2014

One of the most heartfelt, grounded tales of teen love and angst that I know of, featuring two wonderful performances from Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley. There's a sweet but unsentimental naturalism that makes the film ring true in a way that few coming-of-age films do.

It sustains that tone wonderfully, although the last act derails things considerably. This final run of scenes really place in sharp relief how little Aimee seems to exist as an independent character, and I'm not sure if Sutter's accountability for certain events are fully acknowledge by the script.

Altogether, I'm not terribly enthused that the story sidelines Aimee as much as it does; this is very much Teller's movie, and while Sutter is a wonderfully well-rendered character, it's bothersome that Aimee's major decisions and developments are handled off-screen and exist only in relation to Sutter's personal character arc. It sets the story off balance a bit (and maybe also brights out a slight tinge of gendered ugliness; the kind that was overwhelmingly overt in Neustadter and Weber's previous feature, "500 Days of Summer").

Still, I enjoyed it a great deal; it's a lovely little story mostly handled with a delicate maturity too rare in modern romance films.