The Spectacular Now
Authored By: Rosemary Flite
The film The Spectacular Now shares concepts that high school seniors are going through, the dream of going to the perfect college while trying to manage a social life and relationships. We start off by being introduced to a rebellious student, Sutter (Miles Teller), and the innocent, paper-route girl Aimee (Shailene Woodley), who soon develop an unhealthy relationship. Although the film is a bit unrealistic at times, it is a wonderful coming of age tale because of the A plus cast and relatable situations.
Within the first 10 minutes we learn that Sutter is not the type of student who cares about an education, and would much rather deal with the social aspects of high school, while Aimee does everything she can to help support her family. It took me a lot to remember that Teller and Woodley were not actually the characters they portrayed, because they both were able to jump right into their roles. For example, during one part of the movie Sutter took Aimee to a party and started to tell her how beautiful she is, where she modestly disagrees with him. They both made it seem like they were actual high school students, compared to actors in a movie. There were some roles in the movie that were not the most believable like Bethany and Tara, who drove up to Sutter in the very beginning, over dramatically asking him “Know where we can score some beers?” But besides little things like that it was very well acted.
The film The Spectacular Now shares concepts that high school seniors are going through, the dream of going to the perfect college while trying to manage a social life and relationships. We start off by being introduced to a rebellious student, Sutter (Miles Teller), and the innocent, paper-route girl Aimee (Shailene Woodley), who soon develop an unhealthy relationship. Although the film is a bit unrealistic at times, it is a wonderful coming of age tale because of the A plus cast and relatable situations.
Within the first 10 minutes we learn that Sutter is not the type of student who cares about an education, and would much rather deal with the social aspects of high school, while Aimee does everything she can to help support her family. It took me a lot to remember that Teller and Woodley were not actually the characters they portrayed, because they both were able to jump right into their roles. For example, during one part of the movie Sutter took Aimee to a party and started to tell her how beautiful she is, where she modestly disagrees with him. They both made it seem like they were actual high school students, compared to actors in a movie. There were some roles in the movie that were not the most believable like Bethany and Tara, who drove up to Sutter in the very beginning, over dramatically asking him “Know where we can score some beers?” But besides little things like that it was very well acted.
As the movie progresses Sutter and Aimee started to become more than just friends, but it ends up costing Aimee who she is to get the relationship she has dreamed of. She starts to sacrifice herself for his acceptance, submitting herself to abusing alcohol and ignoring her schoolwork for sex and partying. Since I am a high school senior this is something I know has happened to some of my peers before, but also because of Woodley’s convincing acting I couldn’t help but get upset about her drastic change.
Aimee does not completely lose herself though. Before she met Sutter she was going to stay home and help her mom with the paper route, instead of going to college in Philadelphia. She still carries that dream of going away, but with a different perspective given Sutter’s impact. The two of them make a plan to move together, ready to abandon their families and their previous lives. This is still a realistic situation, if people believe they are in love they would be willing to do whatever to stay together, but what happens next is when the movie makes you realize that it isn’t a real situation and just another thing made by Hollywood.
Aimee was waiting for Sutter so they could board their train to Philadelphia, but Sutter never showed up because he didn’t think it was right. He didn’t want to go so he didn’t, no big deal right? But then he doesn’t explain to her why he never showed, in fact he ignores her until he decides to show up at her college(video here) to see her again. It wasn’t a fitting ending to the movie though because the movie was raw and real, then there goes a completely unrealistic ending. If somebody loved another they wouldn’t have just left with no explanation and then of course the movie had to have a happy ending, which just seemed like it was put in there because they didn’t want to upset anyone.
Aimee was waiting for Sutter so they could board their train to Philadelphia, but Sutter never showed up because he didn’t think it was right. He didn’t want to go so he didn’t, no big deal right? But then he doesn’t explain to her why he never showed, in fact he ignores her until he decides to show up at her college(video here) to see her again. It wasn’t a fitting ending to the movie though because the movie was raw and real, then there goes a completely unrealistic ending. If somebody loved another they wouldn’t have just left with no explanation and then of course the movie had to have a happy ending, which just seemed like it was put in there because they didn’t want to upset anyone.