THE SPECTACULAR NOW

Teenager Sutton Keely has an inexhaustible amount of confidence and good humor, and is the life and soul of the many parties that are the pivot of his very existence. He coasts along at school barely managing C- grades and makes his time in class bearable with sips from his hip flask that his is never without.

He is dating Cassidy one of the hottest looking most popular girls at school but she eventually decides that it is time to dump carefree Sutton to get a more mature beau to fit in with her heady ambitions. After Sutton sees his ex. with his replacement at a party he goes on a real bender and wakes up next morning in the middle of someones lawn without any idea how he got there or where indeed his car is. His 'saviour' is Aimee who had been driving by doing her mother's paper round.  She's a polite sweet girl who is intensely sensible and the complete opposite to Sutton, but she politely laughs at all his lame one-lines and ignores his rather inappropriate behaviour.

Compared to showy Cassidy, Aimee is something of a plan jane, but nevertheless on a whim Sutton eventually asks her out on a date.  His mates tell him that it will all end in tears as he is Aimee's first every boyfriend, and that he and this very brainy and unselfish girl have nothing in common.  They are wrong, and even though he still pines and pursues Cassidy for a while, it is very obvious that his friendship with Aimee soon blossoms into love.

As the relationship progresses and they get to know each other more, they discover under the surface they do in fact have a lot in common. Both have absent fathers and have been raised by controlling mothers, and they both cover the scars from this with jokes about it, or distort the facts to a more convenient truth.

To keep up with Sutton the innocent Aimee also frequently uses the hip flask that he gave her as a gift  and she is in real danger of becoming a lush too.  When she accompanies him on a doomed visit to his long lost father which ends in disaster, it almost costs her life too.

This is unquestionably one of the most freshest and powerful coming of age stories I have seen in a very long time.  Sutton, by no means a handsome college jock, strives hard to be popular, whilst at the same he is so troubled by being abandoned by his father, that he barely likes himself and is in danger of aping his alcoholism.  Aimee almost establishes herself as his enabler as a means to escape her own predicament of being trapped by her mother.  They both come at this relationship for all the wrong reasons, but through the pain and the heartaches of self-awareness they reach that place where they (and you) realize that it was a journey they had to make. There is a significant point at the end when someone tells Sutter that 'he's not the joke that everyone say he is ' ..... but we realised that way before then.

Directed by James Ponsoldt (last years Sundance hit 'Smashed'), brilliantly written by Scott Neustadter ('500 Days of Summer'), but the lion's share of the credit must go to the cast, especially the two frighteningly good young stars. Miles Teller ('Rabbit Hole' & 'Footloose') in his first leading role gives a fine performance as Sutton who covers every feeling up with his rapid comic humor, Shailene Woodly (who picked up a Golden Globe Nomination for playing George Clooney's oldest daughter in 'The Descendents') is a joy to behold as the quiet Aimee who realizes that she must be the one to save Sutton from himself.  And for the parents, Kyle Chandler ('Friday Night Lights') was a terrific drunk dad, and Jennifer Jason-Leigh (who I totally failed to recognise) as Sutton's controlling mother.

Its something of a welcome change to see such a fresh and contemporary approach to this rite of passage that usually ends up as a cliche-wrecked soap opera, or some Hallmark TV staple. It's refreshingly honest, unflinchingly painful and completely realistic. Sutton may have been ignoring what's ahead of him in life and focusing his efforts purely on 'the now', but I venture to suggest that this wee movie will more than certainly have an influence on the way we tell coming of age stories in the future.

Available at Amazon.

★★★★★★★★★★