Ryan McNeil
When I was younger, some cheesy rock song told me that yesterday didn’t matter and tomorrow might never come. It told me the only day that matters was right here and right now. A nifty thought, if a tad cliche, and one that comes with more currency when we’re young and insecure. After all, when we’re kids “the future” is a wild abstract, the past is a memory, but the present is tangible. So why not live for the present? Maybe because that comes with a cost we don’t understand until the present becomes the past.
THE SPECTACULAR NOW is the story of Sutter (Miles Teller); a high school senior that everybody loves. He lives an unspectacular life that is defined by a pretty girlfriend, a job in a menswear shop, a crummy car, bad grades, and a suspicious amount of alcohol. As the film begins, we learn that his girlfriend Cassidy (Brie Larson) has dumped him, and this dumping has set him momentarily adrift.
This drift leads him to Aimee (Shailene Woodley). Specifically, the drift leads him to pass out on a stranger’s lawn, where Aime finds him just after dawn the next day. Though the two attend the same school, Sutter hasn’t met her before. Still, something about her appeals to him. At first, it’s not much more than her talent in geometry – a class he is failing – but soon he sees in her what we see.
As the relationship begins, and the school year winds down, Sutter and Aimee become a low simmer conflicting feelings. On the one hand they are enjoying being together, both emotionally and physically. On the other hand, both are trying hard to get a grip on their homelife. She has a widowed mother who seems to be leaning too hard on her, he has a mother who is both protective and aloof. Making Sutter’s situation worse is the fact that his father left when he was young, and his mother now stonewalls every discussion that drifts towards the topic.
In those final months between being children and being young adults, Sutter and Aimee discover a lot about themselves and each other. They also discover the risks with living only for the present.
From a distance, THE SPECTACULAR NOW might seem like another indie darling; a Sundance gem about boy-meets-girl that we’ve seen a few dozen times by now. In some ways it is. However, this indie darling Sundance gem about boy-meets-girl comes with a surprising degree of honesty that makes it feel more special than most. Its look, its feel, and its script all come without the sweet-yet-angsty trappings that usually accompany this sort of offering, and in many ways, it cuts to the core of the immediacy of youth.
We meet Sutter at a crucial junction in his life. His high school days are winding down, with the next chapter is set to begin shortly. For some, this junction is filled with uncertainty and nerves, but for Sutter, it seems to be met with a smirk and a shrug. He’s having too much fun “l-i-v-i-n” to make any sort of plans or take any sort of responsibility. He’s begun to believe his own legend; a bad thing at the best of times, but more so here when it turns out that his legend isn’t what he believes it to be.
From our vantage point, it’s easy to sigh and worry about Sutter. We can tell that he’s pissing away his future. He’s not doing it by living fast and being free. He’s doing it with ambivalence…believing that the life he’s already leading is good enough, and always will be. This part of the character’s attitude is something Miles Teller embodies well. We believe him as the fun-lovin’ party guy, and the friendly-faced clerk. He’s not worried about anything beyond this moment, because in this moment he has a job, and a room, and a girl who cares about him.
When we’re young, it’s hard to look past “the spectacular now”. It’s the time of our life where we live so very much in-the-moment, that timeframes like next year, and the year after that feel like whole centuries away. They aren’t though, as we learn later, and no matter how many times our teachers, guides, and guardians try to drill it into our heads, we never listen. Because of that, stories like Sutter’s occur over and over. They always have and they always will.
What makes THE SPECTACULAR NOW border on tragedy is the fear that Sutter will drag Aimee down with him. Shailene Woodley plays the character with a great deal of humility, charm, and insecurity. We’ve all met an Aimee – the girl who has much going for her but doesn’t realize it. When Sutter starts hanging around with her, we can see that he’s rubbing off on her more than she’s rubbing off on him. It doesn’t take long before the girl who first recoiled at a sip of hard liquor is spiking her own drinks. While she and Sutter come from similar situations, she has clearly found a way to rise above hers. We’re happy to see the spark Sutter is able to kindle in her, but we’re also left worrying if that spark could undo all of her hard work.
THE SPECTACULAR NOW is full of moments that are both beautiful and brutal. Teller and Woodley play their parts with a great deal of truth, often speaking the way an average teenager would speak, rather than the ones who have talented screenwriters feeding them poetic thoughts. The story brings a great deal of loss, desire, self-realization, and honesty. Teller and Woodley convey all of it, and deftly underline the story’s key theme:
When we’re young, we’re not wired to truly consider the consequences…and sometimes the consequences can come with a heavy price.
THE SPECTACULAR NOW does a wonderful job of interlacing all of these ideas into moments of insecurity, abandonment, hopefulness, potential, and youth. It deals with wants and mistakes we have all gone through, or have all watched someone go through. It’s an unexpectedly refreshing film dedicated to the promise of tomorrow, and the pitfalls of today.
I’m really looking forward to this one, and I never thought I’d say that about a high school coming of age story. Great review!
I imagine it’ll be making its way to MN soon. Not sure if you’re in/near Minneapolis, but when I was there I was rather impressed by the amazing cinema scene y’all have available to you!
Without overpraising it any more than I already have, I’ll leave you with this: the film feels like it speaks about being young in a genuine manner…and that’s somewhat rare in film.