The Spectacular Now

My friend and I do this stupid thing where we give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to the movie previews that play before the featured film we are about to see. And it typically takes sheer boredom for me to see one of the movies that I gave a thumbs down to initially but this actually happens more often than I’d like to admit. In the case of Spectacular Now, I was actually midway through it when I realized that this was one of the movies I told myself I’d never pay to see!  I got caught up in all of the hype that surrounded this movie and had completely forgotten that it looked like a melodramatic mess just a few months earlier. Maybe I do see too many movies in the theater.

Spectacular Now is a weird take on a coming of age love story, but just like with 500 Days of Summer (the same writers), it not at all what you would expect. The only problem is, 500 Days was actually entertaining and funny at times. In this snoozefest you are introduced to Sutter (Miles Teller), a senior in high school who is trying to fill out his application for college. As he is doing so, he begins to tell you the story about how he had the best girlfriend ever but then lost her due to a misunderstanding. So he proceeds to go out and party hard that night and this eventually leads to him passing out on a random lawn that happens to be on the paper route of Aimee (Shailene Woodley); whose character name is spelled just as stupidly as her real name! She wakes Sutter up and they instantly become friends and eventually a couple.

Sutter however,  is a person that believes in living in the now and could care less about what’s to come tomorrow. So he drinks constantly and never really takes anything seriously, that includes his relationships. He initially hangs out with the little known but smart Aimee as kind of a pet project, as he is the popular kid in school that’s always the life of the party;  he decides to use his popularity to introduce her to what he thinks is the point of life. It isn’t until they decide to challenge one another to step up their overbearing mothers when things take a weird turn from the norm. If you decide to see this film, I’ll let you discover the rest for yourself.

The acting in it is pretty solid as Teller does a decent job of playing the kid that “Treats Yo Self” just a little too much on a daily basis. The entire time he’s always on the verge of being a total jerk but with each smile and with each swig from his flask, you can’t help but root for him to figure things out. Meanwhile Woodley is starting to put together a nice little resume’ for herself as she is hot off of a solid performance in the otherwise boring Descendants. She’s rather convincing as the cute introverted girl that you hope one day you are lucky enough to help bring out of her shell. I felt awful for being unbelievably turned on during their sex scene, that was until I instantly went to my phone and checked her IMDB page to confirm that she was off age (22 years old). I thought I was going to have to turn myself in to the authorities! But lucky for you this dirty old man is still walking the streets!

It’s not as if the story is bad, it’s just that it’s boring. Nothing truly spectacular takes place in spite of the title and it’s not until something freakish happens towards the end where you are awaken from your near slumber. But that entire scene just feels a bit out of place and ends with way too many tears! I get what the writers were trying to do and it works as a nice cautionary tale but man it sure felt a little too much like an after school special to me! There really should’ve just ended it with Teller holding a crying baby in his hand while sitting in their trailer home as they watch their friends go off to prom!

This movie is a rental at best and I suggest that you start making out with your date midway through it. This movie is WEAK!