REVIEW - THE SPECTACULAR NOW

This America of house parties, of Gap-clad teens drinking from red cups and discovering themselves, of white people problems so white that the only black character in the movie has to ask his girlfriend's white ex how to deal with them. Does this America exist? Or is it one dreamt up by lazy novelists and screenwriters, wishing to bask in the insipid glow of teen movie culture, so nostalgic for these pitiful dreams that they implant them in the not-so-spectacular now, refusing to let them die? Sutter Kiely claims to be the life and soul of the party, which amounts to having a girlfriend, jumping into pools and wearing checked shirts over white tees. He goes to school and goes to teen-themed shindigs with the local stereotypes, before heading home to his comfortably-fractured private life. He meets Aimee Finnicky, who luckily is played by Shailene Woodley, though she's just neat enough a fit for the role that she's too neat, and her sickeningly trite character arc can be telegraphed almost as soon as we first glimpse her face, just minutes into the film. Love, life and relationships - gosh, isn't it all so profound? Isn't it all so moving? Isn't it all so... banal? I know that there exists an audience for this kind of film, where there's a scene set at a prom just for the sake of ticking another box, and one set on the bleachers at graduation. And where there's a sudden tragedy - which is genuinely quite tragic, because Woodley is the sort of actor for whom you naturally feel - among several more drawn-out ones, though these are only tragic when viewed through that white-people-problems screen. And where none of these problems, no matter how sudden nor drawn-out nor exclusively-white, can't be solved with a bit of earnest self-reflection, a gesture of goodwill and a hug. Well then, here's a bit of earnestness: James Ponsoldt, your film is a bit shit. Try solving that with a hug.