The Spectacular Now (2013)

Rotten Tomatoes 70 Best High School Movies #20

This post contains light spoilers

The Setup

This story is about a boy, Sutter (Miles Teller), and his journey through senior year as he navigates his life as a popular kid with a lot of friends but who also has a few secrets and a struggle with a drinking problem that everyone else seems to know about but he doesn't really acknowledge.

The Friends

One of the great things about this movie is that even though Sutter is clearly a popular boy, he doesn't seem to have many friends. Early on he has a girlfriend, Cassidy (Bree Larson), who breaks up with him after she catches him hanging out with another girl in a car. We know that this was very much an innocent situation, and he was helping his friend meet another girl, but you also get the sense that this is just one in a string of chances that Sutter has had (and blown) with Cassidy, who is trying to accept and engage with the transition to college, and that Sutter clearly has no interest in pursuing.

The Stuff

This movie was made in 2013, and we can see that with the flip phones that the kids in the movie use. Additionally, Sutter several times messages Cassidy with AIM or some version of instant messenger on his computer. The technology firmly places the story in the 2000s it seems. Other than this, it doesn't really play a major factor.

The Deal

In the course of one bender, Sutter wakes up on a lawn in the neighborhood of Aimee Finicky (Shailene Woodley). It's early in the morning, but Sutter, always ready for some witty banter and to meet a new friend, joins Aimee as she goes on her mom's paper route. The two talk, and Sutter (who never really thinks more than a couple minutes ahead--The Spectacular NOW), invites her to lunch on Monday, which he of course forgets until the last minute, and when he shows up, Aimee's friend Crystal tries to intervene. What results is a great scene that shows exactly how Sutter has navigated his life so far almost purely on charm. He knows that he can get Aimee to do almost anything, and asks her to tutor him. Again, this isn't portrayed as some grand plan, but rather just Sutter doing what he does, charming his way through life, one person at a time.

The Sage

This role is filled by a couple of heavy hitters, actually, even though one is unfortunately never really given much to do other than harangue Sutter about his grades. That would be his geometry teacher, Mr. Aster, played by the great Andre Royo. This might be my one criticism of this movie, is not giving Mr. Aster more to do. We can tell right away that he sees right through Sutter, and the second scene the two interact where he tells him he might fail his class absolutely begs for a speech from this character who is played in his short moments with such heft. The other sage in the story is Sutter's boss at the men's clothing store he works at, Dan, played by the amazing Bob Odenkirk. Dan, like almost everyone else, sees through Sutter and knows that Sutter is drinking all the time, including on the job, but also knows that his personality makes him a born salesman and the customers love him. The scene where Dan sits him down and tells him he has chosen to keep him on in favor of another clerk he must fire on the condition that he not come in drunk is absolutely devastating because you can tell that he knows Sutter will not accept these conditions and that there's really not much he can do to help him.

The Drama

I've gotten through much of this without discussing the main tension in the story, which is Sutter's growing fondness, closeness, and eventually love for Aimee, who adores him and almost can't believe that this surreal character has dropped into her life. Will Sutter grow up and accept the responsibilities of maturity? Will he stop drinking? Go to college? Aimee certainly wants him to join her as she travels to Philadelphia to work and go to school, something that Sutter has encouraged her to do despite her mother's lack of support. She, in turn, encourages him to press his mother for a way to contact his estranged father, who his mother has kept from him for reasons that they (and we) will learn as they eventually do reach out to him and travel to meet up with him. When they do finally see him, Sutter's dad Tommy (Kyle Chandler, in a very un-Kyle Chandler role), seems to be a vision of what is waiting for Sutter if he doesn't change course.

The Lesson

Sutter wants to have fun. Sutter wants to live in the now. He doesn't handle maturity or responsibility well, and he doesn't handle Aimee leaving well. The ending is pretty ambiguous, but we do see him come see Aimee at her college. It's a curious ending. It's a very different ending from the book, and we don't get the sense that this ending is especially earned. In fact, in what may be a nod to the less optimistic ending in the book, the look on Aimee's face at the end of the film is not exactly one of unbridled joy.

The Verdict

I really like this movie. Miles Teller is fantastic in this role, and I think this movie does a great job of turning the typical high school movie concept on its head. Sutter is a popular kid, but behind all that popularity, the fun, the friends, the parties, is a much darker side. He is tormented by a past and by things that have shaped his personality. His fun personality is driven by alcohol. He's not taken seriously by most people, and if he doesn't change, the life his father leads, of a good-time loser hanging out in bars with other drunks, is a live possibility. Grade: A