(Blu-Review) When My Problems Became Yours: Why The Spectacular Now isn’t Your Typical High School Coming of Age Story
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Make no mistake; this isn't your typical coming of age film! |
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It's not hyperbole to say The Spectacular Now may be the quintessential love story of this generation! |
The Spectacular Now succeeds on many levels but what keeps this tale from being a trope of a high school love story is the layers it adds. From the premise we have all seen this film before: a cool high school kid befriends a geekier, less popular high school kid and they unexpectedly fall in love. But as much as The Spectacular Now is about that, it is also about so much more. At its core The Spectacular Now isn’t just a love story; the film is about what true love can bring out in a person. That true love is what The Spectacular Now captures so well. Never have I felt a film display such life-like love. Ponsoldt, with the help of unbelievable performances by Miles Teller (Sutter) and Shailene Woodley (Aimee), is able to make the audience feel what it is like to truly fall in love for the first time. While love is constantly evolving in most of our hearts, truelove for the first time is something that is difficult to quantify. The new true love I refer to isn’t that of the generic honeymoon phase of a relationship, which many films so easily capture, but rather that feeling that perhaps you have found someone you can share the rest of your life with, both the good times and the bad.
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The Spectacular Now makes you feel true love rather than just watch it! |
Overall, The Spectacular Now accomplishes something pretty spectacular: transcending the coming of age film sub-genre. Ponsoldts’s masterpiece does this by making you feel a love story rather than simply watch it. The director takes the film a step farther by addressing what it means to truly share your life with someone for the first time: the good, the bad, and the sad.
CONFIRMED: EPIC
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