The Spectacular Now

Compared to other movie adaptations of teen novels, this is one of the good ones. It stayed true to the book, maybe with a slight alternate ending, but it didn't deviate from the plot. I felt Teller portrayed Sutter very well and both the main leads' acting felt genuine and believable.

The story isn't a predictable one, sure you have a stunning Woodley playing a girl who hasn't ever had a boyfriend, a part that was hard to believe. However, from how Woodley portrays Aimee, the typical nice girl, you can understand from Aimee's character and personality why she hasn't. I wish the movie would have added a bit more of how much Aimee changed because of Sutter, and some of the negative changes too, something that the book focuses a lot more on. I suggest to those planning on watching this to read the book as well, as I found that I got to know the characters a lot better from reading it.

If you're up for a feel-good, light comedy with predictable movie romance formula, this probably isn't that type of flick. I'd call this a more coming-of-age film which definitely has a Say Anything and Kings of Summer vibe, and if you liked The Spectacular Now then I would definitely watch those movies.

May contain spoilers!!!

Gushing reviews here, so I must be the odd man out, but nothing about this film was believable -- all the way down to bars serving high school kids drinks, and a mother that seems to be unaware of parental legal liability for under-age drinking.

Sutter's super cool popularity is told to us, but never shown. The cool guys in high school always had a posse to roll with. This character has one pseudo friend, and rolls alone most of the time. At graduation, there's not a single male friend around to high-five and take selfies. That's not popular -- that is the geeky nerd that wishes they had just one good friend to hang with. You can't write scenes like this that totally betray the essence of the character you presented and expect anyone to buy it.

His ex girlfriend demands a relationship with a future? Seriously, at 18 years old? I don't know a single teenage girl thinking of college that wants to get that serious with a guy. There is way too much life to explore to be worrying about domestic bliss -- no matter how much you like a guy.

One could understand the characters appeal to a young girl without a lot of male attention, but this is girl (Amy) that has as much of a sense of what she wants in life as his ex-g.f., and his drunken charm would wear thin quickly.

These characters do not resemble high school kids in the least. College frat types -- yes, but not high school.

The Spectacular Now is a coming-of-age drama mixed with young love story about Sutter (Miles Kelly, an interesting, uncynical young find who can communicate a lot of different sides to this character without coming off too fresh or overwrought) who starts off obnoxious (but in the way that is believable to the way that teenage boys can get obnoxious) and in the wake of a failed relationship meets a good, sweet girl, Amy, and a natural relationship unfolds in their senior year of High School. While this is going on, he has a problem with alcohol - which extends to Amy - and about a past history that Sutter has to confront with a dead- beat father.

The film that is very well written (based on a book but having that same quality in the dialog and story turns that speaks to their intelligence at navigating conventions) without being show-offy, and performances that feel raw and sensitive and try to avoid a lot of clichés (or that Hollywood way of showing teenagers "like we think they are" as opposed to how they are closer to life), and a strong dramatic story about young love and overcoming the flaws in yourself.

It's not perfect, and has a few little things with the alcohol element to the film that irked me (which is much bigger than what you may realize seeing the trailer, much more actually, it's really a companion piece with this director's previous movie Smashed which is also about boozing), but its real and honest and that's so rare to find in a teenage story like this. Woodley has a long career ahead of her, and has that great distinction of being naturally pretty, dramatically intuitive, and yet is not SO pretty that you can't accept her as a cute teenager girl (or... dare I say Mary Jane in the next Spiderman movie?) Go see it - it's not top 10 of the year great, but it's great in the ways that matter for a story like this.

I was lucky enough to see The Spectacular Now at an advance screening, and walking out, I had the unmistakable feeling that I can only describe as a "good movie buzz." You feel a little light on your feet. You're thinking not only about what you've just seen, but how it relates to you. It's a heartfelt story that distills all of the beauty, tenderness, and apocalyptic bleakness of youth into a 95 minute love story that portrays teenagers in the most honest way since the films of John Hughes. The Spectacular Now won Sundance's special jury prize for acting and within minutes, the reason for this becomes apparent. Beautiful, naturalistic performances all around. Miles Teller portrays Sutter Keely with charisma and an effervescent charm while Shailene Woodley imbues Aimee Finicky with a tender shyness that makes her character incredibly endearing. When you watch the two of them on screen together, their chemistry is not just apparent, it's intoxicating. And it's not just a movie held together by its performances. Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber have written an incredible screenplay with flawed yet likable characters you can't help but root for, and James Ponsoldt has delicately directed the script to make his best movie to date. The Spectacular Now is much more than another indie darling. It has breathed life into the "teen movie" genre by treating its characters with maturity and honesty. This is the coming of age movie of our time.

I found The Spectacular now to be a very refreshing movie to watch. We've all seen the coming of age high school romance blahblahblah thing before, but the film takes you where you didn't expect it to go, and that is one of the qualities that makes it a great experience.

Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are fantastic, particularly Woodley. I don't know how you can't be a fan of Teller, he is his usual self in this one and adds even more depth to himself. Woodley's as real as it gets in her performance. I didn't notice it until my second viewing in terms of how natural she was, but she was terrific.

Those two are already great to cast as leads, but it's always fun when the casting for anything is just all around fantastic. Tamper your expectations a bit because it's all about the leads in this one, but Coach Taylor, Bubbles, and Saul Goodman are great in the limited time they are on screen. I mean, Kyle Chandler, Andre Royo, and Bob Odenkirk.

The emotional impact of this film really hit me towards the end, and certain factors are very predominant in the movie that you definitely do not expect. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say take away a lot of the laughs you were expecting, and brace yourself for the feels and a very serious tone. This may damper some who came for this because it's from the dudes who did 500 Days of Summer, but It's still very good and the movie is actually funny in the spots it wants to be.

Overall, I think this is absolutely a film you want to see. Where the story goes widens the appeal of this movie by far in my opinion, so if you were just not going to see it or judged it by the trailers, don't. Give it a shot.