Seriously? What an awful film

I have to completely agree with you about this film. When I saw the reviews and even one reviewer hailing it as "the best new coming of age film" I was actually excited to see the movie. After seeing The Descendants (a fantastic movie) I really was hoping for the best since Shailene Woodley was great in The Descendants.

About 15 minutes into The Spectacular Now, I was almost beating my head against my table and the only conceivable reason I continued to watch was to see how much worse (if possible) this movie could actually get.

Now I must say I don't think the actors deserve blame for this movie being terrible. They only deserve blame if they read this script and thought it would be a good movie. I was also excited by this film because it was written by the same writer as 500 Days of Summer. I'm not sure if the writer actually came up with the story or just wrote the screenplay but whoever wrote this story needs to have their head examined for thinking that non-stop drinking can be a driving force of emotion. I'm not opposed to high schoolers being portrayed as party kids or kids who drink, that's fine and it can be useful in plot points and character development, but to make alcohol the only driving force of the characters and the entire movie is not just insane it's plain stupid.

There was no reason for the girl to ever like the boy in this movie because he had not one redeeming quality. It just made no sense. If you're thinking "she liked him because he was popular and a party guy completely different from herself in the beginning" That's fine as a jumping off point of course. But right after there has to be a moment where we see something redeeming in him to make her want to stay. Without that redeeming quality as an audience we have no reason to root for this couple at all.

Lastly the two scenes that made absolutely no sense were:
1: After he almost kills her by throwing her out into the street and she is hit by a car. SHE STILL WANTS HIM BACK EVEN BEFORE AN EXPLANATION OR AN APOLOGY. How does that make any sense at all?
2. The movie ends on the worst conclusion ever, which is after he lets her down for like the 10th time in the movie and she leaves for college. He just shows up and all is forgiven? I know they don't say they get back together, but what can one assume when the last image is them smiling at each other?

The only logical ending was for this kid to lose the girl. Which the final image of the film suggests is completely different. I still think Shailene Woodley is a great actress but don't waste your time on this film

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Ah, but the point was that while he was obnoxious on the surface underneath there was something more -- which all the adults in his life recognized by the way.

Consider that after the "meet cute" on the lawn, he helps Aimee deliver her newspapers. His says that it was so he could be looking for his car at the same time, but a truly selfish person wouldn't do that. He'd just take off on his own. And the conversation they have while doing so is open and genuine. He's not trying to impress Aimee.

As to why Aimee didn't feel more discomfort during sex, it wasn't really her first time. There was a deleted scene on the DVD taking place just after they have sex where she revealed that when she was 14 the 20-year son of her stepdad forced himself on her one day while he was visiting. She was confused and upset and never revealed it to anyone until Sutter came along. Why the scene was deleted I don't know.

i was surprised to see that the rating is around 7... What a dull movie..

1) You have an unlikable obnoxious and unfunny male who treats life like a joke, drinks non-stop and is completely selfish and self-centered #

- Not true. It is often said in the film that he actually is a very loving person who cares more about other people than about himself. This is actually part of his problem. The drinking made him seem obnoxious at times, but all the time it is himself who he is really pissed at. This of course all stems from his daddy issues and the subsequent alcohol abuse. He actually drives away Aimee because he sees that he is not good for her, although he actually really likes her. How is that self-centered??

2) You have a supposedly 'intelligent' girl who falls for this guy for the sole reason, as far as I can tell, that she wants to date one of the cool kids. He treats her like a door mat while getting drunk around her constantly. Did they have one honest moment together when he wasn't drinking? She seems to feed him booze because I guess those are the only times he's nice to her

- She doesn't "feed him booze". He is drunk pretty much the whole time anyway. Getting to your point: She didn’t have a lot of experience with boys (probably stemming from the rape incident in the deleted scenes) and this is probably the first time any guy showed genuine interest in her. Superficially he was a fun guy and charming, so why would she not fall for him? Being as insecure and inexperienced that she was, she took the drinking as normal, or at least as not so bad (seeing how he was such a fun guy the whole time). This actually happens with older, more experienced women in real life, once they fall for a man who has similar problems.

3) There are no authentic scenes with them together. She seems to be his second choice the entire film. The ENTIRE film he is pursuing the blonde and would be WITH THE BLONDE IF SHE LET HIM, yet we are meant to root for this halfhearted joke of a relationship because she's apparently painfully desperate and he needs what to him is little more than an obvious distraction

- It kinda starts that way and he clearly still has feelings for his ex. But you can also see that he has genuine feelings for Aimee. Like I said in my first point, he loves her enough to not want to be with her cause he’s afraid he will be a bad influence and ruin her life. SO I really don’t see that Aimee’s the second choice for him for the entire movie.

4) He has daddy issues. Who honestly cares? 95% of the population has parental issues. Is this supposed to make it ok for him to act like a complete scum bag for 95% of the movie?

- Does not make it ok, but gives an explanation. And he does not act like a scumbag for the whole of the movie if you actually pay attention. He did not want to become his dad, but through the booze he actually went in the same direction, which he himself noticed, which then lead to his whole self-loathing. IMO a really interesting character and true to life. Does it always have to be black and white for you, i.e. a character is either ‘good’ or ‘bad’? I think you could empathize and also sympathize with him well.

5) She never cares that any promises he makes her are while drinking? Seriously? How naive and innocent can a person be? Why does she love him? Hes decent looking and tells jokes and has zero substance? What the f---? What in the film exists that could make anyone buy into this relationship? Oh wait they both have parental issues. That makes it work. Riggghttt. He indirectly causes her to get hit by a car (Ha!) and that makes her love him more.

- Again, see point 2). I still think the deleted scenes should have been kept in the movie. And people blaming him that she gets hit by a car? Please...they had a fight. He told her to get out of the car. When she does she does not pay attention to the road and gets hit. How the f is that his fault? It's not like he literally pushed her out of the car!

6) The 'first time' sex scene was completely unbelievable. As many guys and girls know the first time for a chick can be painful. Her face looked like she was getting a back rub. Totally(not surprisingly) fluffed up

- Well that seems like a very minor point. Does this really have an impact on the quality of the movie?

7) So at the end he figures 'hey maybe I am a total jerk off, maybe I should work on that' and the audience is supposed to say 'Aw he cried to his mom, thats so emotional, he wants to be better' and people buy this nonsense?

- Why not? He knows he is f-cking everything up which drives him more and more into self-loathing to a point when he thinks nobody loves him or cares about him and if somebody does (Aimee) he needs to drive them away because he is a bad influence. This is often the case with alcohol abusers. Through the buzz they suppress their problems and self-doubts and insecurities, but they’re all there and in the end the alcohol abuse makes it worse and worse. His mother reassures him at the end (although I have to say her character was pretty underdeveloped…..again, the movie should have been longer, keeping the deleted scenes in it) when he has his breakdown and he sees that there is hope for him if he can change his ways. If he ever does, we don’t know as the movie is ending on an aprupt note. And many alcoholics struggle their whole life with it. Again, I think this is very true to life.

8) Everything from the direction to the soundtrack to the pacing to the acting was completely lackluster. Snobs call this understated I guess right?

- I have no idea what you mean. Teller’s and Woodley’s acting was great. Also didn’t have any problems with the direction and soundtrack. Like I said, the movie could have been longer.

Plus, it's very boring.

"I like our smell."

"I like you."

Someone just kill me now.

Thank you. I totally agree. The only reason I even gave this film one star was because I couldn't give it none. I only watched it because it had aound 80/100 on metacritic and it was free on On Demand. This movie was total waste of my time but I'm glad I watched it because now I know I HATE IT.



He pushed her out of the car and then she was all happy to see him after? WTF?

Also, kids are so stupid. The human brain doesn't stop developing until age 25. Why are people drinking and doing ATOD?

Personally, I found this movie to a very good feel-good movie. I think that in your analysis of it, you are taking some of the human aspect out of it. People often have little control over who they end up being attracted to. I thought they showed a pretty good chemistry that was seen from the beginning of their relationship spark (delivering the newspapers together...which was done in the morning when he was sober).

Plenty of girls go for guys with some issue one way or the other (or the bad boys). I don't think that her wanting to date him had much to do with him being one of the popular kids, especially since he was never portrayed as a hugely popular kid, just a friendly, well-liked by many type of guy. They also had good moments when tutoring among plenty of other times. In response to your question #5, plenty of couples have some issues and I personally found him to be a likeable guy even though he acted like a jerk at times. There were plenty of times where he complimented her and did things that would make her like him. To question 6, hardly any movie I can think of has ever portrayed losing virginity as a painful experience. It is a movie so they tend to make what's supposed to be a monument moment for the couple to give it a positive spin. I think you are being a little nitpick on that point.

Sorry that you did not enjoy though. Thankfully I felt differently, but that's the nice thing about movie tastes. We can all react differently to the same thing.