Saturday, February 29, 2020

The Spectacular Now Part 3: A Mature Coming-of-Age Romance with Two Spectacular Performances (Film Analysis)



LINK TO PART 2!!!

There’s certainly magnetic chemistry between these characters, flaws regardless, and it draws the audience into rooting for their success.  

Sutter, however, is still showing hesitancy over their development.  The teen groggily awakes the next day, recalling having asked Aimee to the prom (which she said yes) in his drunken stupor.  Sutter quickly tries backtracking on their advancing relationship in the worse—yet very teenager-like—ways possible.  He refuses to pick up Aimee’s phone calls, avoids her at school, and goes over to hang out with his ex.  From Sutter’s perspective, Cassidy’s actions have come across as mostly poisonous—breaking up with him for shallows reasons and then leading him on with mixed messages.  This scene finally shines some light on Cassidy’s polarizing stance, and it’s tragically understandable.  Cassidy loves Sutter, she loves hanging out with him, partying and doing crazy stuff, and how he can always make her laugh...and cry.  For when the partying is done and it’s time to focus on life’s responsibilities and hardships, Sutter doesn’t join.  Wendy is preparing herself for adulthood, but Peter Pan is staying back in Neverland.  Cassidy’s come to the somber truth that Sutter is just not growing up alongside her:

Cassidy: But you can't just have fun all the time. You have to be serious.

Sutter: Hey, I'm one-hundred percent serious.

Cassidy: About what?

Sutter: About not being serious.

Cassidy: Did you even apply to college yet?

Sutter: I don't need college. Who needs that s***? I got everything I need right here. I've got a job. I've got a car... I've got a beautiful girl sitting next to me. You think beauty's in some classroom or some textbook, and it's not. That's not what it's about. This right here. This is beautiful. All of this. That's all you need.

Cassidy: starting to tear up You're drunk.

Sutter: I'm drunk? Whatever! You're drunk! It doesn't matter. Okay, whatever. I'm right, You're right. I'm just saying, you gotta live in the moment.

Cassidy: The moment!? I want… I want more than a moment. I want a future...And you can't do that.

Cassidy concludes that in order for her to advance in life and grow up, she has to leave Sutter behind.  Her breaking up with Sutter wasn’t over believing he was cheating—it was over him always out drinking and partying, with no plans for their steadily closing graduation.  The mixed signals are merely her strong romantic feelings towards him causing her to linger—a slither of hope that maybe he can change.  But here, hanging out with Sutter, that hope seems to die off as she breaks down into tears with Sutter uncomfortably leaving at her request.

The moment is the first real strike to Sutter’s ignorantly bliss mentality on the spectacular now, the next one being Marcus’ final statement after their aforementioned heart-to-heart:

Marcus: They're wrong about you.

Sutter: What's that?

Marcus: You're not the joke everyone thinks, man.

The truth bomb is a real hard hitter for Sutter.  Up to this point, he’s viewed himself as the life of the party top dog—and there most likely was a point in his younger high school years where this was so—but now, as his classmates are maturing around him, Sutter realizes he’s the class clown has-been.  These instances seem to knock Sutter off the high horse he’s been riding and, and after getting a justifiable piece of Krystal’s mind on the way he’s been treating Aimee, makes a figurative and literal U-turn.  He contacts Aimee again, inviting her to his adult sister's dinner party (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who played an alcoholic protagonist in Ponsoldt’s previous film Smashed).  Sweet Aimee—who suspects more than she says—tries letting Sutter off the hook on his prom promise, yet Sutter doubles down with a passionate kiss.  There certainly feels like a genuine change in Sutter’s attitude towards Aimee—openly admitting his attraction to others as the pair becomes a publicly-seen couple.

The two even decide to have sex for the first time.  Sutter, as shown earlier, is experienced in this area but Aimee is clearly not.  The scene is a blend between movie magic romance and honest realism for what it's like to have sex for the first time.  There’s a happy awkwardness between them as they opt to begin, Aimee suggesting they start by taking off their shirts.  It's Woodley's performance here that really steals the show.  Aimee is nervously excited about this big step in their relationship, acting incredibly self-conscious about her body—telling Sutter not to laugh even though she should know by this point that he would never do that.  While underlining peer pressure has certainly been a factor in their relationship, this, fortunately, does not seem like one of the cases.  Aimee seems ready for this next step, and not just to make Sutter happy, even pulling out a condom much to Sutter’s amusing surprise.  Sutter is at his most gentle and compassionate thus far—making sure she’s ready to go all the way.

At first, Aimee shows slight discomfort and pain—requesting for Sutter to “go slower”.  Woodley really captures the moment’s realism here, especially when she apologizes for the slow down.  It’s a natural reaction from the insecure girl, taking it as a personal failure that she’s “ruining” their first time from being magical and passionate.  Sutter disperses the shame, making her feel comfortable as they begin to get the hang of it.  The sex has an air of sweet levity to it, contrast to Sutter’s time with Cassidy.  After they finish, Sutter suddenly gets real on Aimee and reveals that his father isn't actually a pilot and how he hasn’t seen him in a long time.  In a nice bit of role reversal, Aimee pushes Sutter to ask his mom Sara (Jennifer Jason Leigh) about contacting his dad—making a deal with him that she'll stand up to her mom if he stands up to his, to which Sutter agrees.

On prom day, Sutter picks up Aimee and gives her a flask as a gift—she finds the gesture sweet, yet from an audience’s perspective, this is worrying.  Sutter’s influence on Aimee has been causing her to drink frequently with him, even sharing sips of—supposedly heavy—liquor in the school parking lot.  Yet not all of Sutter’s influence has been negative, such as pushing Aimee to tell her mom about her college acceptance.  Aimee reveals that her sister got her a job working at a bookstore in Philly.  The job will help pay for her college tuition and she wants Sutter to come live with her in Philly—noting how he can get a job there and also go to college.  Aimee also pushes Sutter to keep his end of the bargain about talking to his mom—throwing his words right back at him:

Aimee: Sutter! We had a deaI.

Sutter: Yeah. I don't know.

Aimee: What? You can totally do it. Trust me…Okay, look. Repeat after me. Say, "I want to call my dad, Mom. I want to motherf***ing call him."

Sutter: laughing That's not fair.

Sutter agrees to these ideas, yet his facial expressions and hesitancy make it clear he’s very uncomfortable with the subjects.  Aimee seems obvious to his uneasiness, showing her naivety throughout (especially when she refers to Philadelphia as beautiful) and how she's yet to grasp Sutter’s personality.

Yet Sutter does ask his mom for his dad's number, though she refuses to give it.  It’s Sutter’s sister who ends up telling him—with Sutter calling his dad Tom (Kyle Chandler) and making plans for him and Aimee to go to a baseball game.  The plans go incredibly poorly, with the dad flat-out forgetting about the date, taking them to a bar to drink before ditching them to get with a woman, and forgetting them again despite telling them to meet him back at his motel.  Tom is a dark, lonely look into the future of what Sutter could become if he continues down this road of heavy drinking and self-centeredness.  Sutter, who has remembered his dad with nothing but rose-colored admiration, finds himself brutally brought back into reality about his father and himself.  Aimee tries comforting him, exclaiming her love for the first time, yet a drunk and angry Sutter rebukes the claim:

Aimee: I love you. Did you hear me?

Sutter: Yeah.

Aimee: Sutter, I love you.

Sutter: No, you don't. You're wrong.

Aimee: Sutter, I'm not wrong.

Sutter: You don't love me. You're drunk and grateful that somebody showed interest in you.

Aimee: Okay, stop. Stop. Do not try and mess this up.

Sutter: Mess what up? What do you think that this is?

Aimee: What are you tal..Sutter!!!

The escalating discussion causes Sutter to almost crash into another car—just barely spinning out of the way.  Despite his drunk driving putting them in danger, Aimee only shows concern for Sutter and any injuries he may have gotten from the near encounter.  It truly hits Sutter here the damage he's doing to Aimee and how toxic their relationship is for her:

Sutter: What is the matter with you? I almost killed you, and you want to know if I'm okay!

Aimee: Yeah, I wanna make sure that you're okay.

Sutter: What the f*** is wrong with you? Do you not see that I am bad for you? You need to get away from me!

His intoxicated state pushes him to immediately kick her out of the car to end their relationship as quickly as possible.  A sobbing Aimee, clearly unprepared for such escalation, complies and ends up getting sidelined by another car.  The injured Aimee is taken to a hospital with Sutter who is given the choice of either calling his mom or going to jail for drunk driving. 

Sutter has fully realized he’s pulling Aimee into a downward spiral alongside him, yet he’s still doing poorly in his math class—needing to get a C on his final in order to pass.  Reluctantly, Sutter goes back to Aimee for more tutoring (strangely scheming for the future, showing just how off he’s feeling), who is nothing but joyful to see the boy who’s nearly killed her twice.

Sutter: I'm so sorry, Aimee.

Aimee: Sutter, stop. It's okay. We can just pretend that it never happened. We don't ever have to talk about it again. I don't want anything to get in the way of Philly. You're all that matters to me.

I believe this is where the film started to lose me on my initial viewing, and I believe it has to do with the swift pacing from the car fight to here—leaving little room to absorb just why Sutter is going back to Aimee.  I will say how baffling it is that Aimee’s mom would allow the teen who drove her daughter intoxicated and nearly killed her back into her house, nor why Sutter has seemingly not been punished by his mother (and inconsistency with the book as Aimee lies about the circumstances there—portraying Sutter as a hero who saved her from a car—and no one learning that Sutter was drunk driving).

With Aimee’s tutoring, Sutter ends up graduating, though he shows little desire to celebrate--even opting to not drink when Aimee brings out her flask.  At work, Sutter is told by Dan that he has to downsize and fire all but one of his clerks.  Dan notes how both he and the customers like Sutter and decides to keep him on the condition that Sutter does come in drunk or buzzed ever again—surprising both Sutter and the audience that he's known all along about his drinking.  Dan asks if he can promise this and Sutter truthfully replies that he can’t:

Dan: Well, I appreciate your honesty….I suppose if I was your father this is where I might give you a lecture or something about what you're doing to yourself.

Sutter: Trust me, if you were my dad, you wouldn't have to.

The somber scene moves to another as Sutter cuts all ties with Aimee, refusing to answer any more of her phone calls and leaving her alone and heartbroken at the bus stop where she was going to meet him to go to Philly.  Sutter then goes to a bar and gets stinking drunk, driving right into his family’s mailbox.  Sutter’s mom comes out and has a deep heart-to-heart with him as he breaks down into tears and exclaims how he’s exactly like his father:

Sara: Sutter, listen to me. Listen to me. That man has never loved anyone but himself. But you love everybody. You have the biggest heart of anyone I know. When you were in third grade, and Ricky was on crutches you carried his books. Carried that backpack every day. And when you were nine and Rosemary Clark lost her mother? You invited her to come live with us. You told her that I would be her new mom. You've always been so speciaI, Sutter. That's why everyone loves you so much.

Sutter: Nobody loves me.

Sara: Sutter, you are so wrong. Do you hear me? You are so wrong.

None of this is in the book.  The Spectacular Now’s film conclusion is the biggest alteration from the novel, and it all begins with Sara telling Sutter he matters and is loved.  Sutter’s mom in the book is nameless and detached from Sutter’s life—considered by book Sutter to be a shallow woman more concerned with her second husband and beauty salon trips.  By contrast, Sara is a single, hardworking mother who shows great affection for Sutter whenever on screen.  The addition of Sara’s love for Sutter leads to two drastically different endings to the story.   The film’s conclusion shows Sutter once again writing a college application letter that nicely sums up his character journey:

"My name is Sutter Keely, and I'm eighteen years old. Compared to other kids, I haven't had that many hardships. Not really. You know, stuff has happened, sure. But stuff always happens, right? But the real challenge in my life, the real hardship... is me. It's always been me. As long as I can remember, I've never not been afraid. Afraid of failure... of letting people down... hurting people... getting hurt. Before, if I kept my guard up and focused on other things, other people... if I couldn't even feel it, then no harm would come to me. I screwed up. Not only did I shut out the pain, I shut out everything—the good and the bad—until there was nothing. It's fine to just live in the now... but the best part about now is there's another one tomorrow. And I'm gonna start making them count. 

Sincerely, Sutter Keely."

The scene then turns to black, as if about to go to the credits, yet there is one last scene that remains as Sutter drives too Aimee's new college to make contact for the first time in a while.  No words are spoken here, with the delivery all in the facial expressions.  Teller’s been great with facial expressions so far, yet he cannot compare to Woodley’s fantastic myriad of natural emotions displayed all in a few moments.  At first, there’s surprise at seeing Sutter, followed by genuine happiness that quickly becomes uncertainty as she looks away and tries suppressing an incoming smile.  The scene ends with her pulling some hair back in an almost instinctively flirtatious manner, a very brief smile appearing and then disappearing as the scene cuts to the credits.

The book ends on a far more bleaker ending.  With no mother to pep-talk him, Sutter continues down the path of his father—staying home drinking, never to see Aimee again.  The book vs film endings here is comparable to The Grapes of Wrath, with its book ending on a somber note while the movie concludes with upbeat hopefulness.  Yet whereas The Grapes of Wrath endings have their own strengths and merits to make a strong argument for one or the other, The Spectacular Now’s film ending triumphs over its adaptation.  In both stories, influence plays a key theme—Tom influences Sutter, Sutter influences Aimee, Aimee influences Sutter, etc.  Yet most prominently, it is alcohol that plays the biggest influence.  It fuels Sutter’s mentality, giving him a false escape from the world’s pressures and sorrows—in turn preventing him from experiencing all the wonders and joy life has to offer as well.  His father became fully influenced by this path, losing his family to a hollow shell of life.

Book Sutter, however, also goes down this path, or at least shows no signs of breaking away.  That certainly is a bleak way of portraying alcoholism—an inescapable grasp of loneliness and misery.  I reject that view.  Everyone and anyone can change their path of life, for better or for worse.  In the film, Sutter has his mother as a powerful influence to bring him back from the depths where he was heading.  And yet it’s not just his mom who changes him, after all, Sara most likely gave the same positive encouragement to Tom while he was in his dark place.  Yet Tom continued down such dark path while Sutter changed his fate, because, in the end, the biggest influence on one’s actions is oneself.  Sutter chooses to live for the future—to face and embrace, clearheaded, both the good and bad life has to offer.  The film’s ending offers a much more hopeful tone towards influence and change, particularly for alcoholism and other addictions.

I overlooked this message on my initial viewing, preoccupied with what felt like a hastily formulaic Hollywood finale--in addition to the film seemingly slumping on its core focus of Sutter and Aimee’s relationship.  It’s now I see that while the relationship plays a huge role in the film, it is not the most essential piece to the story.  The ending’s inconclusive nature on their relationship is, therefore, the perfect way to conclude.  Can Sutter and Aimee rekindle a healthier relationship?  Will they simply become friends?  Or will Sutter have to face consequences to his actions with Aimee having moved on and no longer wanting him in her life?  The film leaves it up to audience interpretation, yet still concludes the story on a hopeful note for Sutter and Aimee regarding brighter futures.

It’s an overall ideal way to end the story that while technically giving its adaptation a more Hollywood ending, better fits with the film’s overarching message.  The Spectacular Now is a great film about influence and growing up.  It contains beautiful cinematography, an array of true-to-life characters, two spectacular, complex performances from Woodley and Teller, a captivating, endearing romance with a dark underbelly, and a considerate tackling of darker themes that makes it one of the most mature coming-of-age romances to exist.  The Spectacular Now was one of the earliest films I reviewed during the 2010s, and now I see it’s also one of its best.

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