“THE NOW SPECTACULAR” – A new film review

It’s a cute romance to meet!

“GO DAWGS!” Wouldn’t that be a fitting introduction for a movie set at or near the University of Georgia? It is the story of a high school playboy and a shy girl. One morning he wakes up on the front lawn, after a night out, and not knowing how he got there, completely dazed and bewildered to see her. He is Sutter Keely, played by Miles Teller, and she is Aimee Finicky, played by Shailene Woodley. Thus begins their “meet-cute” romance. He is “Mister Now Guy”, not caring about future plans. She, on the other hand, is the kind of girl who is going through adolescence, fully feeling that when the music stops, she will have to have a chair to sit on.

Movies are not real life!

Cinematographically, it’s two peas in a pod. I was rooting a lot for them. But writers have a way of doing what they shouldn’t: They allow actors to say or do things that audiences don’t expect them to do, based on how we’ve seen them. (They are out of place.) Movies are not real life. In real life, people do all sorts of out of character things and sooner or later we decide how we’re going to handle them. But in the movies: if a wallflower in bed with her boyfriend gives her a condom, we find ourselves gasping, “I think she’s a virgin!” Or when this young man runs down gulps of liquor from a pocket flask and acts like he’s going to be fine, we have to shake our heads: “Don’t you see who you are?” This is the same guy who passed out the night he ended up on Miss Aimee’s front lawn. (“Me? No problem!”)

me I was disappointed!

So even though I thought these two young men really blended well on screen, I was disappointed how their characters were clouded by the lack of an integral relationship… You can think of another way: if you go see this movie and keep some flashbacks of his own adolescence, remembering all the pain and frustrated emotions there… All I can say is that with all the good chemistry these two exuded, I just had the feeling that the writers were cheating on me, which annoyed me. .

Am I too picky?

Director of “THE SPECTACULAR NOW” it was James Ponsoldt, and I felt that the pacing and sequencing of his film worked quite well. He did the best he could: he gave her material from Tim Tharp’s book. But here’s something that puzzled me: Aimee’s last name is “Fussy.” Now wouldn’t you believe the top guns would say, “If her name is ‘picky,’ shouldn’t we do that to her?” Again, that’s what you do in the movies. If one’s name is Noel “Coward”, one doesn’t have to be a coward… But if a man is called that in a movie, I think he really needs to act that way.

How should I rate this movie?

How should I rate this movie? He has a lot of ‘bulldog’ in his production: “docile, friendly, stubborn, sociable”… but like some bulldogs he goes too far. I think a FOUR is all I have the spirit for. “GO DAWGS!” (Better luck next time.)