Like just about every blogger out there, I felt the need to write up a Top Ten List of last year's films. I haven't seen all of the major Oscar contenders, but as of now I feel like I've seen enough of them that my Top 10 is pretty stable. Among those I haven't seen yet: Mud, Frozen, Nebraska, All is Lost and, most regrettably, Short Term 12.
The links will take you to my original reviews of each film.
1. 12 Years a Slave - Honestly, my top three films are pretty much a dead heat, but I feel inclined to give 12 Years a Slave the edge because it takes subject matter that could have felt like pandering Oscar bait and finds a way to make it a horrific personal film about one man trapped in a living nightmare. It knows when to be subtle and when to beat us over the head with the brutality of slavery. Of all the films I saw this year, this might have been the one that left me with the most to think about afterwards. There's little doubt in my mind that Chiwetel Ejiofor deserves the Oscar for his performance here and Steve McQueen is equally deserving of a Best Director nomination.
2. Gravity - I don't know how you begin to write a film like Gravity, much less
direct it. Alfonso Cuaron's film is a marvel of directing, visual
effects and acting. Some say there's no character arc in this, which to me is just indicative that they're not looking closely enough. Many films this year offered spectacle, but for my money, no film delivered on that promise better than Gravity.
3. Her - Her could flippantly be described as a story about man who falls
in love with his Siri. That's not totally accurate. The computer
"operating system" Samantha is a few evolutionary steps above Siri, but
not to a ridiculous degree. Our lead character, Theodore Twombly
(Joaquin Phoenix), is a lonely introvert who's still not made piece with
his separation and impending divorce from his wife. Every part of Theodore's world has a veneer of phoniness to it, so it's
not terribly surprising that he'd bond with his newly purchased O.S.
"Samantha." In exploring the relationship, the film first seems to deconstruct the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope and in going beyond that, writer/director Spike Jonze begins to explore more universal truths about relationships.
4. The Wolf of Wall Street - A portrait of excess that's unfortunately been misunderstood by many. Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese do some of their best work ever in this three-hour film about one of the greediest, slimiest stockbrokers to ever make a penny off his clients' greed and have them come back begging for more. In its own way, it forces us to confront that part of ourselves that wants the life Jordan Belfort represents.
5. Captain Phillips - aka "the film that reminds us why Tom Hanks is so revered." The final scene of the film is incredible, as Hanks vividly shows us that the trauma of the hostage situation didn't end immediately with Phillips's liberation. Equally impressive is how Barkhad Abdi holds his own with Hanks every moment they are on screen
together - a feat that's even more remarkable once you realize this is
Abdi's first feature film.
6. The Spectacular Now - There are a lot of virtues to be found in The Spectacular Now,
but perhaps one of the most satisfying elements is the honest writing of
the characters. This is one of those movies where the viewer can't
help but marvel at how authentic everything feels, even when it would be
so easy for the script to veer into more common explorations of first
love and high school cliques. Director James Ponsoldt does a wonderful job of conveying the subtlety and nuance in Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber's script. This is the sort of film that is so natural that the writing appears deceptively easy, even though the truth is precisely the opposite. If you overlooked this one last summer, check it out on DVD when it's released later this month.
7. American Hustle - I didn't get to do a full review of this one back when I first saw it and now I wish I had because the capsule review here won't do justice to all my thoughts on it. My big takeaway from this film was how rich and fleshed-out the characters were. You want to know how to get a movie made? Get strong talent attached. And how do you do that? Write characters with as much range and complexity as the principle cast here. Everyone scores here. I've seen complaints that the structure was too loose, that the plot was too slight. I don't agree with that and even if I did, guys like Christian Bale's Irving and Bradley Cooper's Richie were so fascinating, I'd have watched a whole movie of those guys just interacting.
8. Man of Steel - I rewatched this one a second time just a few weeks ago and found that my strong first impressions of the film weren't just "midnight screening" excitement. If anything, I enjoyed the film even more a second time. David Goyer's script isn't quite as strong as some of his Dark Knight entries, but he still does a teriffic job of making an old story feel new. Some condemned this because this didn't feel like the Superman they knew.
As someone who's lived with multiple interpretations of the mythos including two or three comic book reboots, the Donner films, Lois & Clark, Smallville and more, I've gotten used to accepting sometimes wildly distinct takes on the continuity. Judging this film on its own terms rather than what came before is not only fairer to the film, but a better way to enjoy it. Henry Cavill is perfect casting as Superman and for my money one of the most exhilarating visual sequences of the year is Clark exiting the spaceship in full costume and gradually learning to take flight. If the joy on Superman's face when he finally soars doesn't make you smile, you probably have no soul.
9. The Conjuring - The was the one unqualified success in horror this year. Several reviewers have focused on the "clapping game" scare, but for my money the opening sequence was one of the first genuinely unsettling things I've seen in a horror film in a while. More amazingly, it involves zero violence. There's an amazing sense of dread achieved just with a dark hallway, a shaft of light bisecting the darkness, a prone doll and creepy writing on the wall. As the director of Saw, James Wan bears some responsibility for the decade of torture porn scripts that I suffered through in its wake. Thus, I feel his role in reviving a more restrained approach to horror might be the biggest redemption story of the year.
10. Dallas Buyers Club - I've never really understood the hate for Matthew McConaughey. Like Ben Affleck, the guy's gotten a lot of hate and derision that seems undeserved. There might have been a period where he was trapped in rom-com hell, but I've always liked the guy, maybe just out of affection for his work in A Time to Kill. That's why it's so great to see him remind everyone just how good he can be in this 1980s-set story about a man with HIV who's given 30 days to live and prolongs his life through illegal medications which he also provides to other patients in his situation. This is one I definitely feel I'll need to revisit outside of the awards glut, just to fully absorb it. Jared Leto does great work as a transgender HIV-positive patient. It's not really a feel-good movie and is probably my most-debated entry here, but man, is this a great second act for McConaughey.
Overall, 2013 was a great year for film. This was the first year in a long time where I was often seeing more than one movie a week and still felt like I was falling behind in the awards season crush. I could probably craft a full top ten list out of my runner-ups and still be leaving some great movies off. Among the other films I really enjoyed that almost made the cut were Saving Mr. Banks, Don Jon, Rush, Side Effects, Lone Survivor and This is the End. Also, V/H/S 2 was about 75% awesome, particularly the cult segment "Safe Haven" written and directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans.
Even the summer tentpoles were generally pretty good, with Iron Man 3 being the best movie of the trilogy (though nothing beats the first hour of the original film), Star Trek Into Darkness managing some great work with Kirk's character, even if the film wasn't quite as good as Abrams's previous effort, and World War Z proving that you CAN save a film late in production and that Damon Lindelof is capable of being your script's trauma surgeon. There might have been some duds this year, but it definitely felt like the quantity of good material was a lot higher than in recent years.
No matter what your tastes were, there should have been something that came out this year that restored your faith in the movies. If you came out of 2013 cynical about the state of film, I'm quite confidant in saying that nothing would satisfy you.
Showing posts with label The Spectacular Now. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Spectacular Now. Show all posts
Monday, January 6, 2014
Monday, August 19, 2013
Why THE SPECTACULAR NOW is so spectacular
There are a lot of virtues to be found in The Spectacular Now, but perhaps one of the most satisfying elements is the honest writing of the characters. This is one of those movies where the viewer can't help but marvel at how authentic everything feels, even when it would be so easy for the script to veer into more common explorations of first love and high school cliques. As I left the theatre, I couldn't help but think of all the ways this film would be very different if it existed in the universes of Can't Hardly Wait or She's All That. It's become common to invoke comparisons with John Hughes' films when it comes to more nuanced portrayals of teenagers. I wouldn't draw too many parallels between Hughes' better films and The Spectacular Now myself, but this film is impressive enough in its own way.
This Sundance hit is directed by James Ponsoldt from a script adapted by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, from the Tim Tharp novel of the same name. Adding to the strong pedigree is a fantastic cast, toplined by Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, backed up by a murder's row of excellent supporting actors. Ponsoldt is coming off of a writing and directing turn on last year's Smashed, which made an excellent case for Mary Elizabeth Winstead being a long-underrecognized talent. (Winstead shows up here as well, in an all-too-brief turn as Teller's sister.) In a strange way, The Spectacular Now is a natural companion with Smashed, as both deal with alcoholism with more nuance and insight than the vast majority of films that address the topic.
The film is a coming of age story, but it would also be accurate to call it a film about an alcoholic that never invokes the word "alcoholism." Teller's Sutter is in a funk after being dumped by his girlfriend (the increasingly ubiquitious Brie Larson) and after a wild night of getting it out of his system, he's discovered on a stranger's lawn by classmate Aimee. It's a surprisingly well-handled Meet Cute that transitions rather easily to the two of them bonding during a drive. The next thing we knew, Sutter is offering to have lunch with Aimee the next day at school.
They're from different worlds in terms of their school identities, but one of the early smart choices that the script makes is it doesn't fall into the cliche view of high school that only exists in movies. There was a period during the late 90s and early 2000s where every teen movie had a scene where a character broke down the cartography of the school cafeteria clique-by-clique: the jocks, the nerds, the burnouts, the popular kids, the atheletes and so on. A lesser script would have made Sutter big man on campus, wearing a letter jacket and surrounded by football playing meatheads. Meanwhile Aimee would have been an arty nerd with glasses and overalls.
Was anyone's high school experience THAT on-the-nose? My school certainly had people that fell into those categories, but few were rigidly in one catagory and there was a lot of overlap in cliques. In weaker teen movies, you can spot the archetypes just by looking at them. Here, Aimee and Sutter don't immediately look like they belong to different worlds. They're teens, not archetypes.
Sutter's popular, but that's the result of a big heart rather than more archaic notions of high school infamy. Yes, the hot girls know he's the one to come to to score booze, but his best friend looks like a textbook example of the "geek" stereotype and one of the first things we see Sutter do is try to set his friend up with a "regulation hottie" (to borrow a term from Mean Girls.) It's hard not to like this guy, and Teller's charisma really helps sell that this is the kind of guy who'd make friends easily. There's an ease and a confidence to his interactions that almost effortlessly disarms whoever he's talking to.
There's also a small moment that underscores how un-conceited he is. When a fellow classmate asks Sutter for advice in how to deal with a woman, Sutter is shocked advice would be needed, pointing out the guy is class president, popular and the founder of a charity. Sutter's mother is right when she says he has a big heart, as he not only seems to see the best in people, but he's often a catalyst for bringing it out.
Because Sutter is life of the party, it doesn't initially seem that odd to us when we see him drinking. Underage drinking isn't exactly a revelation, and especially in teen movies, where half the time writers barely pay lip service to the legalities. But over time, we notice that it's rare we go more than two scenes without being reminded of Sutter's flask. He drinks at parties, he drinks on the job, he drinks while hanging with Aimee.
Sutter's girlfriend seemingly dumps him because she catches him in a car with another girl. He explains it's an innocent misunderstanding - and it is - so our impulse is to say "what a bitch!" with regard to the ex. But about midway through the film, the ex regards Sutter and his new girlfriend and privately asks, "Have you turned her into a lush yet?"
If you're looking for a moment that redefines the entire film, it might well be that single line of dialogue.
Aimee has been hanging out more and more with Sutter, and at first we feel like we're seeing the typical story where that one perfect guy recognizes the beauty in this girl that every one else has overlooked. There's a brief stretch of the story where Sutter seems poised to be the male equivalent of Natalie Portman's Garden State character - the free spirit who awakens the hero's drive and passion. But the script doesn't take that path, and it doesn't make the mistake of turning Sutter into a female fantasy of that perfect guy who will see her for what she is.
The sweetness of those earlier moments is tempered by other scenes where Sutter can't help but stare at his ex across a party, or chat with her on IM. We see Aimee blossoming under Sutter's attention, but we also fear the moments when Sutter screws up, goes back to the ex and stomps Aimee's innocent heart.
That moment never comes. But do you know what we do get plenty of? Sutter introducing Aimee to alcohol. Sutter buying her a flask. The two of them sharing drinks even as they bond. Instead, we start to understand that Sutter's ex may have dumped him not over an imaginary indiscretion, but because of his lack of direction and his over-reliance on the booze. Indeed, "Have you turned her into a lush yet?" is a question that makes one realize perhaps the ex-girlfriend feared that's what her relationship with Sutter would do to her.
It's poignant to see moments that demonstrate how Sutter is so good for Aimee and yet also so bad for her at the same time. Aimee's deflowering is one of the more beautiful and honest depictions of such a scene in recent film history. There's an intimacy to the performances and the direction that allows the audience to get swept up with the young love without feeling awkward at witnessing their first consummation. When moments like that are played for laughs or titillation, it's easy to distance oneself from the scene. This scene doesn't take that out - going straight for the raw, honest emotion.
Even as Sutter brings out the best in her by encouraging her to be more independent, we can't help but notice her own flask becomes more ever-present in scene after scene. I don't believe Aimee is an alcoholic, nor do I believe Sutter's drinking makes him a bad person. They genuinely love each other, which makes it all the more difficult to accept the conclusion that they might not be right for each other.
I don't wish to delve too deeply into spoilers for the end, but this next paragraph will spill a few details. It's interesting to me to contrast this film's ending with Ponsoldt's Smashed. The earlier film concluded that no matter how much Winstead's character loved her husband, she was never going to be able to deal her alcoholism in that environment. She had to move on from him, and that was depicted as the right choice. The Spectacular Now flips that somewhat, having Sutter push Aimee away for what he tells himself is her own good. And yet, the ending makes that split less definitive. While The Spectacular Now is a great love story, there's an argument to be made that it's a spiritual prequel to Smashed. Does that comparison diminish the happy overtones of the ending? Perhaps, but it does not diminish the film iteself.
The Spectacular Now is a film that left me with a lot to say - a unfortunate rarity these days. The more I think back on individual moments in the film, the more in awe I am of all the creative collaborators involved - writers, actors and the director. As I said yesterday on twitter, if Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber aren't nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, something will have definitely gone amiss. Teller and Woodley also do fantastic work, but I fear their youth and the lack of showiness to their roles will lead to them being overlooked.
I feel pretty confidant in saying that The Spectacular Now is all but a lock for my Ten Best of 2013 List and if you're a fan of strong characters and compelling drama, it'll find a place on yours too.
This Sundance hit is directed by James Ponsoldt from a script adapted by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, from the Tim Tharp novel of the same name. Adding to the strong pedigree is a fantastic cast, toplined by Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, backed up by a murder's row of excellent supporting actors. Ponsoldt is coming off of a writing and directing turn on last year's Smashed, which made an excellent case for Mary Elizabeth Winstead being a long-underrecognized talent. (Winstead shows up here as well, in an all-too-brief turn as Teller's sister.) In a strange way, The Spectacular Now is a natural companion with Smashed, as both deal with alcoholism with more nuance and insight than the vast majority of films that address the topic.
The film is a coming of age story, but it would also be accurate to call it a film about an alcoholic that never invokes the word "alcoholism." Teller's Sutter is in a funk after being dumped by his girlfriend (the increasingly ubiquitious Brie Larson) and after a wild night of getting it out of his system, he's discovered on a stranger's lawn by classmate Aimee. It's a surprisingly well-handled Meet Cute that transitions rather easily to the two of them bonding during a drive. The next thing we knew, Sutter is offering to have lunch with Aimee the next day at school.
They're from different worlds in terms of their school identities, but one of the early smart choices that the script makes is it doesn't fall into the cliche view of high school that only exists in movies. There was a period during the late 90s and early 2000s where every teen movie had a scene where a character broke down the cartography of the school cafeteria clique-by-clique: the jocks, the nerds, the burnouts, the popular kids, the atheletes and so on. A lesser script would have made Sutter big man on campus, wearing a letter jacket and surrounded by football playing meatheads. Meanwhile Aimee would have been an arty nerd with glasses and overalls.
Was anyone's high school experience THAT on-the-nose? My school certainly had people that fell into those categories, but few were rigidly in one catagory and there was a lot of overlap in cliques. In weaker teen movies, you can spot the archetypes just by looking at them. Here, Aimee and Sutter don't immediately look like they belong to different worlds. They're teens, not archetypes.
Sutter's popular, but that's the result of a big heart rather than more archaic notions of high school infamy. Yes, the hot girls know he's the one to come to to score booze, but his best friend looks like a textbook example of the "geek" stereotype and one of the first things we see Sutter do is try to set his friend up with a "regulation hottie" (to borrow a term from Mean Girls.) It's hard not to like this guy, and Teller's charisma really helps sell that this is the kind of guy who'd make friends easily. There's an ease and a confidence to his interactions that almost effortlessly disarms whoever he's talking to.
There's also a small moment that underscores how un-conceited he is. When a fellow classmate asks Sutter for advice in how to deal with a woman, Sutter is shocked advice would be needed, pointing out the guy is class president, popular and the founder of a charity. Sutter's mother is right when she says he has a big heart, as he not only seems to see the best in people, but he's often a catalyst for bringing it out.
Because Sutter is life of the party, it doesn't initially seem that odd to us when we see him drinking. Underage drinking isn't exactly a revelation, and especially in teen movies, where half the time writers barely pay lip service to the legalities. But over time, we notice that it's rare we go more than two scenes without being reminded of Sutter's flask. He drinks at parties, he drinks on the job, he drinks while hanging with Aimee.
Sutter's girlfriend seemingly dumps him because she catches him in a car with another girl. He explains it's an innocent misunderstanding - and it is - so our impulse is to say "what a bitch!" with regard to the ex. But about midway through the film, the ex regards Sutter and his new girlfriend and privately asks, "Have you turned her into a lush yet?"
If you're looking for a moment that redefines the entire film, it might well be that single line of dialogue.
Aimee has been hanging out more and more with Sutter, and at first we feel like we're seeing the typical story where that one perfect guy recognizes the beauty in this girl that every one else has overlooked. There's a brief stretch of the story where Sutter seems poised to be the male equivalent of Natalie Portman's Garden State character - the free spirit who awakens the hero's drive and passion. But the script doesn't take that path, and it doesn't make the mistake of turning Sutter into a female fantasy of that perfect guy who will see her for what she is.
The sweetness of those earlier moments is tempered by other scenes where Sutter can't help but stare at his ex across a party, or chat with her on IM. We see Aimee blossoming under Sutter's attention, but we also fear the moments when Sutter screws up, goes back to the ex and stomps Aimee's innocent heart.
That moment never comes. But do you know what we do get plenty of? Sutter introducing Aimee to alcohol. Sutter buying her a flask. The two of them sharing drinks even as they bond. Instead, we start to understand that Sutter's ex may have dumped him not over an imaginary indiscretion, but because of his lack of direction and his over-reliance on the booze. Indeed, "Have you turned her into a lush yet?" is a question that makes one realize perhaps the ex-girlfriend feared that's what her relationship with Sutter would do to her.
It's poignant to see moments that demonstrate how Sutter is so good for Aimee and yet also so bad for her at the same time. Aimee's deflowering is one of the more beautiful and honest depictions of such a scene in recent film history. There's an intimacy to the performances and the direction that allows the audience to get swept up with the young love without feeling awkward at witnessing their first consummation. When moments like that are played for laughs or titillation, it's easy to distance oneself from the scene. This scene doesn't take that out - going straight for the raw, honest emotion.
Even as Sutter brings out the best in her by encouraging her to be more independent, we can't help but notice her own flask becomes more ever-present in scene after scene. I don't believe Aimee is an alcoholic, nor do I believe Sutter's drinking makes him a bad person. They genuinely love each other, which makes it all the more difficult to accept the conclusion that they might not be right for each other.
I don't wish to delve too deeply into spoilers for the end, but this next paragraph will spill a few details. It's interesting to me to contrast this film's ending with Ponsoldt's Smashed. The earlier film concluded that no matter how much Winstead's character loved her husband, she was never going to be able to deal her alcoholism in that environment. She had to move on from him, and that was depicted as the right choice. The Spectacular Now flips that somewhat, having Sutter push Aimee away for what he tells himself is her own good. And yet, the ending makes that split less definitive. While The Spectacular Now is a great love story, there's an argument to be made that it's a spiritual prequel to Smashed. Does that comparison diminish the happy overtones of the ending? Perhaps, but it does not diminish the film iteself.
The Spectacular Now is a film that left me with a lot to say - a unfortunate rarity these days. The more I think back on individual moments in the film, the more in awe I am of all the creative collaborators involved - writers, actors and the director. As I said yesterday on twitter, if Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber aren't nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, something will have definitely gone amiss. Teller and Woodley also do fantastic work, but I fear their youth and the lack of showiness to their roles will lead to them being overlooked.
I feel pretty confidant in saying that The Spectacular Now is all but a lock for my Ten Best of 2013 List and if you're a fan of strong characters and compelling drama, it'll find a place on yours too.
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