There are occasions where the wrong
elements of a story get engrained into my brain.
Note: This is my second review of The Spectacular Now. Here's my original review from 2013, written back when the film first released.
The Spectacular Now left a
strong impression on my first viewing, for both better and for worse. The film adaptation of Tim Tharp’s 2008 novel
stunned me with its lovely cinematography, natural-feeling characters, distinct
dive into darker themes for a seeming teen romance plot (though the R-rating
should have also been a tipoff), and, most importantly, phenomenal acting from
its lead characters. Yet its last third
left me on a sour note, and I could not shake this feeling off. An ending can truly affect one’s viewpoint of
a story and here is no exception. By
that year’s end, my mind had become more preoccupied with the film’s weak
ending over its numerous strengths—denying it a spot on my top ten of 2013:
This movie came SO very close to
making my top ten (maybe even top five).
If not for the finale (where a literal crash sends the film into more
formulaic territory) this could have been one of my favorite romance-dramas of
the past decade.
Amusingly, my original review has
very little to say regarding criticism of the last third, just that it didn't
hit the same level of greatness the first two-thirds achieved. Nonetheless, the idea grew in my head that The
Spectacular Now was this flawed film with some great elements. I even considered skipping it when revisiting
films for the best of the decade (which is still happening, just taking a lot
longer than expected), but I didn’t in respect of The End of the Tour—another film
directed by James Ponsoldt that similarly stood out due to its fantastic lead performances. Revisiting The Spectacular Now exposed
just how silly I was to get caught up with the ending. Not only is the film’s finale not the train
wreck I’ve erroneously been remembering, but it also ideally concludes an
overall great story by improving upon its source material’s conclusion. Add on the film’s various impressive to
fantastic elements and The Spectacular Now proves upon revisiting what a
fool I was for underplaying it.
The Spectacular Now opens with
protagonist Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) writing his first college application
letter. The opening shot is the teenager
sitting down at his computer drinking a beer.
It immediately paints a picture of who Sutter is, and that picture is
given vivid life as Sutter internally narrates his letter:
Dear Dean of Admissions, my name is
Sutter Keely...and up until yesterday I had the best f***ing girlfriend in the
world. I know I probably shouldn't say "f***" right there, but I'm
sorry. I have to. Like, we had this connection. Seriously. Everybody knew us. Everybody
loved us. We were a force to be reckoned with. I'm not gonna say that we were the
life of every party, but we were. We were the life of every party.
Everybody
knows a person like Sutter (perhaps some of us are Sutter). The guy is an outgoing extrovert with extreme
charisma. He’s the type that can
(and does in the film) charm his way from being someone’s despised adversary to
their closest confidant in a matter of moments.
He’s witty and fun, finds ways to complement and hearten one out of
their deepest insecurities, and loves to party.
In high school, where the most popular kids are only thinking about wild
partying, he’s at the top of the student hierarchy. The audience sees him being the life of many parties over his
application monologue—living a Hakuna Matata life with his girlfriend Cassie.
Cassie is played by Brie Larson,
who I completely forgot was even in this film.
Or, more accurately, I didn’t know who she was at the time and forgot
about her role here when she became much more recognizable. While Larson had been in plenty of prior films
(some I had seen at the time like Scott Pilgrim and Don Jon) it wasn’t
until 2013 that she started getting more spotlight—yet it wasn’t The
Spectacular Now that did it, it was Short Term 12 (a film that came out before The
Spectacular Now but I only saw later at home). Compared to her performances in Short Term
12, Larson’s role here is unremarkable and bordering on generic (though not
entirely so, as I’ll get to later).
With her titled
role in Captain Marvel having turned the population’s outlook of her
into a negative or positive feminist figure, it’s strange to look back
and see her playing the hot girlfriend archetype. It’s even stranger seeing Larson briefly naked
in a sex scene, something I just don’t see her doing nowadays. Cassie is the central starting issue in the
film for Sutter, who ends up breaking up with him for seemingly petty reasons.
In retrospect, the opening
segment is a clear case of an unreliable narrator. Sutter is portraying himself in the utmost
positive light, the breakup being no exception.
From Sutter’s point of view, the audience sees him helping out his less
outgoing friend get with a girl—Sutter and the girl’s female friend smoothly
“ditching” the two as they take a romantic canoe ride alone. Sutter and the friend go back to wait in his
car for their eventual return, and at first, it seems as if the breakup will
occur from an instance of cheating. Yet,
surprisingly, Sutter remains faithful—casually chatting it up with the girl in
an entirely friendly manner. This does
not stop Cassie, however, from appearing and angrily breaking up with him. The opening portrays Sutter as the ultimate
bro—a popular, benevolent guy loved by all—with the breakup an entirely
irrational decision by Cassie for a crime Sutter did not commit. At least, that's what Sutter believes to be
the issue.
The segment concludes with Sutter
using his charming wiles to get into a bar and go on a drinking binge to forget
his breakup woes. As he continues to
drink and recklessly party, the New Orleans’s style soundtrack gets louder and
more distorted—coming to an unsettlingly jarring climax as the film’s title
card pops into frame. One thing here is
made absolutely clear to the audience.
Sutter drinks a lot. And from the
way this relatively upbeat intro ends on such a disconcerting conclusion is
great foreshadowing of darker things to come and that all is not right with Sutter
underneath the surface.
LINK TO PART 2!!!
LINK TO PART 2!!!
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