Review of The Spectacular Now (2013) by John M — 19 Jan 2014

There have been worse high school experiences. So this is about a recently dumped high school boy (Miles Teller) that finds his outlook on life changing when he enters a relationship with a girl outside of his social circles (Shailene Woodley).

This is for the same exact crowd that went for The Kings of Summer, as it is another coming of age indie movie that captures that same feeling. The strong suit of The Spectacular Now is how genuine it is.

It captures exactly how kids of this age care about how others perceive them, and let's face it: confidence in high school is hard to come by. It stays upbeat, positive and feel-good for the majority of the movie, and ends up being a pretty light movie before ultimately getting serious in the final act.

I did like the dynamic between these two kids, where you have one person who is clearly way more into the relationship than the other, but nobody wants to blink in this teen romance game of chicken. Teller is charismatic, and it does feel like much of the interaction between these two kids is improvised, giving it a charming, natural feel.

This will probably speak to kids of this age more than anybody else.