London Film Festival: The Spectacular Now

 

 

If there’s one thing I’m a sucker for, it’s coming of age romantic dramas with a quirky girl at the heart. I’ve been hugely anticipating The Spectacular Now for a while now; ever since it opened to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The film is an adaptation of Tim Tharp’s novel of the same name by 500 Days of Summer writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. 500 Days of Summer is one of my favourite movies, hence the excitement. Directed by James Ponsoldt, who directed Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and Scott Pilgrim’s Mary Elizabeth Winstead in alcohol abuse drama “Smashed” last year. The film stars Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, who was outstanding in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, her only other film performance. Woodley is going to be huge next year, mark my words. I had to grab a taxi to the premiere. When I arrived outside the venue, I think the people outside thought I was a celebrity arriving, you can obviously understand their disappointment when I exited the vehicle. The Mayfair Curzon is a beautiful old fashioned cinema, I’ve never been before but I wish I took some photos because it looked stunning. James Ponsoldt introduced the film and informed us he’d be around after the showing for a Q and A session.

The Spectacular Now tells the story of Sutter Keely, a charming, hard partying high school senior who prides himself on living in the moment, living in the now. While Sutter might be popular or likeable with his high-school peers, he has no ambition in life; he doesn’t want to grow up. Sutter is content with his clerk job, poor grades while drinking whiskey from a pocket flask, attending every possible party he can but when Sutter’s girlfriend Cassidy breaks up with him. Sutter starts to put his life into perspective or does he? After a hardcore night of partying Sutter is awoken on a random neighbour’s lawn by Aimee Finecky an innocent, shy, sweet, nice girl who reads science fiction and backwards manga in her spare time. Aimee is un-experienced at life, she has no crazy stories to tell, she doesn’t drink, she’s never had a boyfriend. So Sutter takes it upon himself to help her - live in the moment. While Sutter has good intentions, the more he attempts to help Aimee, the more he possibly destroys her. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley were outstanding, it’s no surprise they both won the Special Jury Award for Acting at the Sundance Film Festival. The audience shouldn’t like Sutter Keely, but Miles Teller makes him likeable, with his confident charisma but Teller is also capable of portraying the softer side to Sutter when required especially in the more emotive scenes during the film’s third act. Shailene Woodley, wow this girl can act. If you saw The Descendants and The Spectacular Now back to back, you’d see two completely contrasting characters. In the Descendants you hate her because she’s a spoiled brat but here you can’t help but love her innocent nativity, the way in which Aimee views the world is completely different from Sutter. For instance when Aimee is completely oblivious a random guy is hitting on her, yet Sutter detects it immediately. Aimee’s main concern is Sutter while Sutter’s main concern is himself. They are from two completely different words and yet, they balance each other perfectly. The supporting cast is great too with Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Sutter’s sister Holly, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Sutter’s mother, Kyle Chandler as Sutter’s vacant father who hasn’t been around for ten years and lastly Bob Odenkirk aka Sual Goodman as Sutter’s boss Dan. The performances are outstanding but the script is perfectly written really capturing the heartache and complexity of not only first loves but the unknown worrying reality of what the future has in store for us. Like Sutter, sometimes we wish we didn’t have to grow up.

While I enjoyed The Spectacular Now, the film isn’t perfect. The film has some melodramatic moments, especially an incident which occurs with Aimee leading into the third act which I felt really stood out as unnecessary. The reason I felt it was unnecessary is because the incident occurs, then it’s quickly forgotten about with nobody learning from the consequences. Personally I felt the film portrayed an honest look at the subject of teen alcoholism, relationships and sex in a sensitive and realistic way that young adults should be able to relate too. While It would be unfair to be compared to movies such as 500 Days of Summer and The Perks of Being a Wallflower because those films have had time to imbed themselves in our memory, I certainly feel in a few years time The Spectacular Now will deserve to be mentioned alongside those movies.

 

 

 

James Ponsoldt re-appeared for the Q and A session. Now I don’t want to offend anyone who attended the screening if you’re reading this, you’re all entitled to your own opinion, that’s what makes the movie industry so great. But honestly this was one of the worst Q and A sessions I’ve attended, and it wasn’t James Ponsoldt’s fault, I actually felt bad for the guy because the audience were terrible. James Ponsoldt came across nervous and that was understandable, I would be too but this audience were brutal. One guy asked “How do you expect to gain distribution for this movie, what was the point of the movie, you didn’t attempt to represent the location and culture we live in. Who is going to see this kind of movie?”. The question was something along them lines and that guy is entitled to his opinion. But in my opinion if you’re unhappy with the film, keep it to yourself, complain to your friend afterwards, don’t insult the director of the movie to his face with a lack of respect. If that guy was a filmmaker and had made a movie, then I would understand and he can discuss distribution all he wants, but he clearly wasn’t and he is trying to tell an actual filmmaker how to do his job. What a joke. James Ponsoldt actually handled the question well; he replied “He didn’t want to create stereotypical opinions which are associated with Georgia such as racial abuse for a movie of this nature. He went on to discuss how the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and gained distribution in the United States in which it had already been released and grossed 7 million while the Walt Disney Company were distributing the film here in the UK.” The audience actually applauded Ponsoldt because he just put that guy in his place. The room was filled with an older higher class audience, which is probably why they struggled to appreciate the movie, which is understandable because a movie like this wouldn’t be aimed at them on general release. Another guy claimed he didn’t know Ponsoldt directed Smashed, once Ponsoldt mentioned he had. He gave my favourite quote of the session “I watched Smashed on iTunes” before asking whether because Smashed dealt with alcohol abuse was that the reason he was chosen to direct The Spectacular Now? Seriously where do they find these people. The Spectacular Now might highlight alcohol abuse but it isn’t the major plot point and certainly not the soul reason Ponsoldt was chosen. Some sensible questions were asked such as did James Ponsoldt choose Kyle Chandler, to go against his usual type of character. For those that don’t know Kyle Chandler plays the idealistic father on an American TV show called Friday Night Lights but in The Spectacular Now, he plays the complete opposite. James Ponsoldt commented that was his intentions, and claimed any actor who has portrayed a long term television character will immediately wish to play against type once their show has ended. He claimed James Gandolfini of The Sopranos did it; Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad will probably do it. You’ve got to love a Breaking Bad reference. Another question asked was the casting decision of Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley and the experience of their character development on set. An actual intelligent question! James Ponsoldt spoke about 90% of the director’s job is the casting decision. The second time I heard that quote in one evening after Alexander Payne said it. He spoke about how he saw Miles Teller’s performance in Rabbit Hole and how he dealt with the emotional aspect of that performance compared to his performance in the Footloose remake, which made he realise Teller could confidently portray both sides of Sutter’s character. Then he spoke about how he watched The Descendants and hated Shailene Woodley’s character for the first ten minutes but by the end of the movie, she had broke his heart. Ponsoldt described them both as two of the best actors of their generation, which is a huge compliment. He went on to discuss how he discussed the character of Shutter with Miles Teller for hours in a bar, which is exactly how I approach directing. Then how Shailene Woodley knew more about being a seventeen year old girl then he ever could, so if she didn’t feel something sounded right then he would allow her to change it. Ponsoldt quoted that he allowed his actors the chance to improvise on set as long as they were willing to do anything they asked of him. He also pointed out that during takes, if a bug landed on one of the characters or they walked into a tree branch then they carried on rolling the camera because that is what naturally would happen in life. I noticed these small aspects while I was watching and I agree, they help add to the realism of the movie, it’s the little details that count, which is why I felt the incident of Woodley felt so out of place, like I mentioned earlier. Anyway I’ve brought the book of The Spectacular Now; I look forward to reading it.

James Ponsoldt if you ever read this, I just want to let you know you did a great job. You’re a director I aspire to be like myself and you have a bright future ahead of you. As for Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber I will continue to anticipate their future work, they are currently working on an adaptation of John Green’s novel The Fault in Our Stars, which will be directed by Josh Boone who directed the brilliant Stuck in Love earlier this year. The film will once again star Shailene Woodley. They are also rumoured to be working with The Perks of Being a Wallflower director Stephen Chbosky on an adaption of While We’re Young staring Emma Watson. So look out for both of those in the future. While The Spectacular Now doesn’t yet have a UK release date, it will probably be released around February time. Be sure to go and see the movie, it won’t disappoint you. Thanks for reading.