The Spectacular Now

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Last year, we have the spectacular Perks of Being of Wallflower. This year, we have The Way, Way Back and most of all, The Spectacular Now. It is a lovely, heartfelt, sweet, gentle and sincere film. The Spectacular Now focuses on most teen experiences: first love relationship, 'living in the now' attitude towards life, fear of the future, alcohol and family issues. The story is about a charming, crude but troubled boy meets a reserved, shy, naive...yet sweet, smart girl/wallflower and managed to find a connection in each other. As the film progresses, it was shown that they enjoy hanging out together, helping and complementing each other. Sutter, the lead guy, plagued by alcoholism and family issues, must learn to confront his fears and face who he really is and learn what loving someone really means. Aimee, the lead girl, need to learn to stand up for herself against her controlling mother who might be potentially ruining her college future because she's responsible for partially paying the bills. The film may seem to be an average love story, but it carries a genuine believability to it. The film takes the first-love romance seriously but never falls to become the typical weepy Asian melodramas that Koreans are so fond of making. The two lead actors are great on screen, deliver strong convincing performance to let us believe that the love chemistry between them is real and managed keep the audience engaged throughout the film. There are some subtle humor throughout the film as well. What a deeply affecting film this is. It's the best coming-of-age romantic drama comedy film of the year. Rating: 9/10 "But the real challenge in my life, the real hardship, is me. It's always been me. As long as I can remember, I've never not been afraid. Afraid of failure. Of letting people down. Hurting people. Getting hurt. I thought if I kept my guard up and focused on other things, other people...If I couldn't even feel, well, then no harm would come to me. I screwed up. Not only did I shut out the pain, I shut out everything. The good and the bad. Until there was nothing. It's fine to just "live in the now". But the best part about "now" is there's another one tomorrow. And I'm gonna start making them count"

Upon exiting the movie, the guy in front of me was asked by the snack bar manager: "how was your hot dog?" (its a small local theater). His reply without missing a step: "much better than the movie". My voiced comment then was: "I didn't even have a hot dog and it was still better than this movie." A movie about a male, teenage alcoholic who drinks his way through the movie (including classes, work, social life), gives up the big breasted girlfriend for the wall flower and proceeds to turn her into a high school flask toter is not worth the time it takes to park outside the theater. I wish I hadn't believed Peter Travers' review (usually a good source of movie ideas for me)and wasted my time and gas to sit through this pathetic attempt at movie making. Malcolm 1040

Listen, I have been trying to write a decent review. But I just can't. This movie is just senseless. This pretty much sums up the story: -I have a perfect life, I have a perfect girlfriend. -Baby I didn't cheat on you. -Oh hey sweet and shy girl, let's make the most mainstream couple ever. -OMG you're so special. -OMG I told you to get out of my car! -OMG I'm sorry you were almost killed because of me. -I love you so much I will leave you alone in embarrassment. -I will just send an awesome college application, writing the most mainstream things ever, and I'm totally getting in. I see no story and no character, just moody drunk kids who have no idea what they're doing. Weird movie. Don't waste your money.