7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Sutter Keely lives in the now. It's a good place for him. A high school senior, charming and self-possessed, he's the life of the party, loves his job at a men's clothing store, and has no plans for the future. A budding alcoholic, he's never far from his supersized, whiskey-fortified thirst-master cup. But after being dumped by his girlfriend, Sutter gets drunk and wakes up on a lawn with Aimee Finicky hovering over him. She's different: the "nice girl" who reads science fiction and doesn't have a boyfriend. While Amy has dreams of a future, Sutter lives in the impressive delusion of a spectacular now, yet somehow, they're drawn together.
Starring: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, Masam Holden, Dayo OkeniyiRomance | 100% |
Teen | 99% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
There’s a very telling moment early on in the teen comedy-drama The Spectacular Now, where a good time party boy high school senior rather improbably named Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) asks a girl named Aimee Finecky (Shailene Woodley) for a quick summation of who she is. Sutter gives one or two word descriptions of some their classmates—things like the stoner, the nerd, and so on—but Aimee resolutely refuses to categorize herself in any way, perhaps as much out of a basic insecurity as for any deep held convictions. But the salient interest in this conversation is just how much some high school kids do tend to stuff people into prefab niches, which may help them to cope with the maddening array of personality types one typically encounters at the period of life. The Spectacular Now follows in the footsteps of a bunch of somewhat similarly themed films, outings like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but it offers a kind of unusual twist in that its putative hero Sutter isn’t the typical nerd or outcast, and is in fact a regular on the school’s party circuit—perhaps too much of a regular, it turns out. Sutter has a drinking problem, something that’s divulged relatively “innocently” enough (with him sneaking a bit of hooch into a soda at his job and with one scene where he shows up drunk to confront his ex-girlfriend), but which soon starts to loom large as he confronts the end of “childhood” with his impending graduation from high school. The Spectacular Now is a rather unassuming “little” film that ends up packing an atypical emotional wallop as it moves along. It has several flaws, from the minor (I mean, really—a character named Sutter Keely?) to more troubling (a rather pat resolution that kind of whitewashes much of what has gone before), but it’s a noble effort from director James Ponsoldt, who has become something of a critical darling and audience favorite at several of the last few Sundance Festivals.
The Spectacular Now is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot on film by cinematographer Jess Hall (who shot the funny "Don't" segment of Grindhouse), The Spectacular Now makes great use of its Georgia locations to evince a kind of golden, glowing ambience that seems to perfectly illustrate the frozen moment in time that Sutter wants to preserve. A lot of the film is (deliberately) on the slightly soft side, with lower contrast than some might expect. Hall also seems to prefer natural lighting in virtually every shot, which means that a few interior scenes are bathed in quite a few shadows, which tend to deprive those moments of much in the way of fine detail. Colors are beautifully suffused and very accurate looking, but it's the light that Hall captures that really creates The Spectacular Now's very evocative mood, and that nicely modulated array of brightness and darkness is rendered very well on this high definition presentation.
The Spectacular Now's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is subtle but effective, tending to only draw attention to itself in moments like the early party scene where Sutter confronts Cassidy. Otherwise, there's some fine, if at times rather quiet, ambient environmental effects that are placed quite well around the soundfield, helping to sonically recreate the small town feel that Ponsoldt felt was so important to the film's mood. Dialogue is cleanly presented and Rob Simonsen's nice score also sounds great. There's not a wealth of huge dynamic range here, but fidelity is top notch and there are no problems to report.
I received some particularly nasty messages when my review for The Perks of Being a Wallflower wasn't an out and out rave, but I'll tell you why I personally find The Spectacular Now so much more convincing as a teenage dramedy: it's less contrived, it's less pretentious, and it has a more nuanced approach to the trials and tribulations of this very important time in everyone's lives. This film isn't perfect by any means, and I can well understand those who find the ending a letdown, but the writing here is excellent and the two lead performers are completely in tune with each other, creating a totally believable "young love" scenario that is both uplifting and heartbreaking in equal measure. The supporting cast is also aces, with a really effective turn by Kyle Chandler as a kind of loutish father giving Sutter a sneak preview into what his life might be like if he doesn't start making changes. This Blu-ray presentation has solid video and audio and comes Highly recommended.
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