The Spectacular Now (2013) Review

          The Spectacular Now (2013) stars Miles Teller as a high school senior who's kind of the life of the party and Shailene Woodley as another high school senior who's pretty much the opposite of him (the quiet, nerdy type if you will). Miles was just getting over a relationship with another girl, then Shailene and him meet after Miles somehow passed out in her front lawn. Soon after, they form a relationship between each other, which results in the movie showing us a realistic portrayal of young love and also how youth deals with family problems and such.
          Okay guys, bear with me here. Writing this review is going to be pretty hard for me. Why? Well, this is the type of movie that I think is really good for what it is, but at the same time, this isn't exactly for me. See, I'm not always big into movies that are sad or have sad moments in them. I'm not trying to say movies shouldn't ever have conflict in them. I mean I cried during movies like "E.T." and "The Iron Giant", but I definitely see myself revisiting them. Not so much here. There are times when I feel like I was invading somebody's personal privacy, and I was hearing dark things about somebody's life that I felt sorry and ashamed of hearing about.
          Let me be absolutely clear here. This does not in any way represent the quality of the movie, which as I said before is very good. Shailene Woodley right now might be one of my favorite actresses today. Even in movies that I didn't like too much, she always does a fantastic job in her acting, including this movie. Miles Teller also does a good job here. He seems confident a lot, while also trying to secretly hide his pain. Towards the end, you can really see his character maturing.
          Not once in this movie did I ever come across a scene that seemed fake. It always felt real, even I didn't go through a lot of the same experiences as these characters did in this movie. It's very sweet when it wants to be, and also very heartbreaking when it wants to be. I also appreciated how this movie isn't all about 'big moments' in life until later on in the movie. You're basically pretty much experiencing the everyday lives of teenagers here.
          If you want a realistic portrayal of young love, go try this at least once. Just keep in mind that isn't a completely feel-good movie here. And like I said, this isn't exactly for me, and I probably won't see it again in a long time, but I do give it a lot of respect on how well made it is and I'm very glad I saw it.
          I give "The Spectacular Now" (2013) directed by James Ponsoldt an 8 out of 10.