The Spectacular Now

2013 movie

Rating: 12/20

Plot: A high school senior with a bit of a drinking problem falls asleep in a plain girl's yard and then befriends her. They don't seem to have a lot in common, but they try to make their relationship work.

I watched this because it was on somebody's top-ten list for 2013. I had a really difficult time connecting with the characters or their problems. I don't know if I liked this movie's protagonist, and I'm not sure if I was supposed to like him. First, I should ask this: Is it appropriate to make up a drinking game for a movie about a teenager's problems with alcohol? Because I did, drinking a shot every time there was a scene in which Sutter Keely took a drink. And then I got alcohol poisoning and died, and now this blog has to be ghostwritten from now on. You won't notice the difference because the ghostwriter can't write and doesn't really know what he's talking about either. Maybe I'm being too hard on the young character, but I just kind of thought he was a loser, borderline lovable but far too directionless to really like. However, I did like the kid who played him--Miles Teller--and assume that he's really this gregarious sort of jackass in real life. His relationship with Aimee was almost sweet and evolved naturally enough, even in the beginning when nothing really made sense on the surface. But really, what did these two really have? Was there anything real there? I'm not sure he was sober during any of their encounters, and I never could figure out what she saw in him unless she just wanted to date a popular kid. He's never really the ideal boyfriend, is he? Actually, now that I think about it, was he even popular? He had an ex-girlfriend, but did the guy even have any friends? I guess I just didn't understand the movie's characters or their trajectories, and without that understanding, a moment of intimacy seemed cheap, a weird accident made me laugh inappropriately, some father issues seemed cliched, and the indeterminate ending seemed forced. It's like a coming-of-age movie where the character doesn't really come of age. The movie's poorly paced, and seems weirdly stuck in the ruts created by countless other teenage romance dramas that came before it. I'll admit though--I may have been biased going in because this movie has such a stupid title.