James Ponsoldt’s The
Spectacular Now is a refreshing depiction of teenage life, friendship,
romantic relationships, and angst. Its main character, Sutter (Miles Teller),
is the school’s life of the party. He’s fun and funny, popular among the ‘right’
people, and has an on again-off again beautiful girlfriend, who looks like the
all-American Homecoming Queen. Like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, this is as close to the spirit of John Hughes
as we’ve seen, in the sense of a writer who gets the voice and troubles of the
American teenager.
