Wasn't 2013 a great movie year? The big Oscar winners were all excellent, and some of the smaller and overlooked movies that year were real gems as well. They struck a chord and really stuck with me. Enter The Spectacular Now.
Sutter (Miles Teller) is popular, the life of the party, and professes to all that he lives in the "now," that the past and future don't matter, even with his high school graduation looming on the horizon. After a breakup, he finds himself getting close to Aimee (Shailene Woodley), a bookish good girl from his school who he meets after waking up hungover on a stranger's front lawn. As their relationship progresses, it becomes apparent that Sutter's alcohol problem is quietly tearing his life apart.
This movie really spoke to me because I've known people who are self-destructive, who just can't will themselves to get their shit together. Misery loves company, so when Sutter starts bringing Aimee down with him, you want to shake him and say "Look at what you're doing to yourself! Leave her alone!" Some naysayers of this film complain that Sutter is unlikeable and douchey, and Aimee is a doormat. But that's real. Some people are a mess, and some people enable that mess to happen. Teller and Woodley are great in their roles, playing their parts with sincerity and raw openness. This film is a lot like life: people treat each other badly for no reason, people come together and drift apart, and questions go unanswered. It's a very special film with characters that you end up loving in spite of their flaws, and it definitely deserves a spot in your queue.
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