Coming-of-age movies, at least in America, often hinge on a loss of innocence, either one’s virginity or one’s naivete. The formula tracks a misfit’s stumble toward acceptance or transcendence, usually to the tune of a greatest-hits soundtrack.
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The new movie The Spectacular Now, based on Tim Tharp’s celebrated young-adult novel, is exceptional in that its young hero is socially confident and genuinely outgoing. High school senior Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) never met a party he didn’t like, and when there isn’t one he becomes the party. He’s a boozer happy to live in the moment. The problem is that makes him hazy about the future.
Maybe his inability to imagine a life after high school is linked to his dismissal of any belief in life after death. Maybe his abandonment by his alcoholic father (Kyle Chandler) led to a rejection of the idea of a heavenly Father. We root for Sutter, but the film is ambiguous as to whether he’ll be a healthy adult; with its emphasis on a “higher power,” Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t seem his likely path (but perhaps Rational Recovery?).
Directed by James Ponsoldt
