The Spectacular Now (2013)
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 128
Fresh: 117 | Rotten: 11
The Spectacular Now is an adroit, sensitive film that avoids typical coming-of-age story trappings.
Average Rating: 8.3/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 1
The Spectacular Now is an adroit, sensitive film that avoids typical coming-of-age story trappings.
liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 17,546
Movie Info
With sly humor and an intensity of feeling, THE SPECTACULAR NOW (directed by James Ponsoldt) creates a vivid, three-dimensional portrait of youth confronting the funny, thrilling and perilous business of modern love and adulthood. This is the tale of Sutter Keely (Miles Teller), a high school senior and effortless charmer, and of how he unexpectedly falls in love with "the good girl" Aimee Finecky (Shailene Woodley). What starts as an unlikely romance becomes a sharp-eyed, straight-up snapshot
Cast
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Miles Teller
Sutter Keely -
Shailene Woodley
Aimee Finecky -
Brie Larson
Cassidy -
Mary Elizabeth Winst...
Holly Keely -
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Kyle Chandler
Thomas Keely -
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Dayo Okeniyi
Marcus -
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The Spectacular Now Trailer & Photos
All Critics (128) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (117) | Rotten (11)
[A] nuanced and unsentimental coming-of-age film.
Top CriticThis adaptation of Tim Tharp's novel, directed with delicate restraint by James Ponsoldt, sneaks up on you. It makes you laugh, then it breaks your heart.
Teller and Woodley hum together, and the movie does their performances justice.
This coming-of-age movie should appeal to smart, sensitive young people who haven't been exposed to the better examples of the genre.
The film is engrossing all the way through, the sweetest, saddest, most humane movie I've seen all year.
So many films featuring teens seem overstimulated or familiar. This one strikes a deep, rich note and holds it.
The film deals believably and honestly with teen anxieties about the future, while also exploring the familial impact of addiction.
Stark and gritty, this may be the most down-to-earth teen romance ever, filled with touches of unpredictable, inescapable reality.
One of the best modern coming-of-age tales, told with depth and, more importantly, wisdom.
Teller and Woodley are good but it is Kyle Chandler who really shines in this young love story.
Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller are, well, spectacular in the lead roles, helping to elevate what could easily have been a standard coming-of-age drama.
There's an element so relevant to the credibility of the story that the script avoids completely and it's shocking this fundamental defect isn't provoking more contempt.
The Spectacular Now marks the return of the great coming-of-age movie
Director James Ponsoldt has a drinking problem. The problem is that he apparently can't stop making movies about drinking.
And credit the filmmakers for not dramatizing the fateful "first time." In so many films it's portrayed as serious and painful, almost like a punishment. Here it is shown the way I remember it...nervous banter and a lot of giggling.
The film's utter believability on all fronts is its greatest asset.
Nothing spectacular, skip it.
Teller and Woodley make lasting impressions in this bittersweet, unassuming little summer gem, a movie that's "spectacular" in own simple way.
Both Teller and Woodley are engaging actors who put forth their character's struggles with tremendous conviction and guile.
Ponsoldt has created a coming-of-age movie that won't leave you rolling your eyes.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I found The Spectacular Now a good bit shy of spectacular.
Packages a couple of great performances and superior atmosphere into one of the best films of the summer.
Unfortunately, an odd paradox emerges. The more we learn about Aimee -- the more she is presented in depth, as a complicated character -- the more she is revealed to be, in fact, just a prop for Sutter's rehabilitation and redemption.
Together, Teller and Woodley have a chemistry that Hollywood would bottle if it could.
For most of its running time, The Spectacular Now appears headed for 10 Best territory -- this year's equivalent of 2012's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. ... But a late-inning incident leads to a curiously rushed final act.
Strikes a bittersweet note of unaffected authenticity...
Audience Reviews for The Spectacular Now
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Sutter Keely: If you were my father, you wouldn't have to give me a lecture.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| I just don't get it - hugely disappointing | 21 days ago | 7 |
| 500 Days of Summer... | 22 days ago | 3 |
| Cole Smithey's review | 2 months ago | 1 |
| Review | 2 months ago | 0 |
| Summer Love | 55 days ago | 0 |
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