The Spectacular Now isn’t your typical superficial teenage movie with unrealistic characters and empty cliches. Director, James Ponsoldt has crafted a funny and realistic coming-of-age tale that feels like it has been pulled out of the 80’s. Ponsoldt continually adds an unexpected depth to the plot, creating a raw and disarming freshness that brings life to the characters and plot so that nothing feels fake or “cute”. The Spectacular Now could quite possibly be the coming-of-age film of this generation that accurately depicts what it’s like to be a teenager today. At first the movie seems to be a cookie-cutter template; the easy going, living in the “spectacular” now Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) befriends the shy and innocent wallflower, Aimee Finecky (Shailene Woodley). And in basically in any other movie, this unlikely pairing of a troubled bad boy and a brainy good girl would learn life lessons from each other. She would teach him humility and sincerity, and he would bring her out of her shell and show her what she’s been missing out on. But hardly anything in The Spectacular Now plays out the way you expect. Sutter Keely, is the smooth-talking kid who has an answer for everything, makes friends easily, and lives in the moment, he brings back the memory of John Cusack’s Lloyd Dobler in “Say Anything…”. …show more content…
The movie challenges the mainstream teenage romance and transforms it with a healthy dose of reality and also recaptures the raw excitement and heartbreak of adolescence that has been somewhat lost in 80s movies. Entirely so that it manages to replace a seen-it-all perspective of teenage movies with a disarming freshness. The Spectacular Now shows how a coming-of-age movie should be, as it appeals to smart, sensitive young people like myself who haven’t been exposed to the better examples of the
The film reflects the class difference from beginning through the end, especially between Annie and Helen. Annie is a single woman in her late 30s without saving or boyfriend. She had a terrible failure in her bakery shop, which leads her to work as a sale clerk in a jewelry store. When Annie arrived Lillian’s engagement party,
The play didn’t focus on the day-to-day life of Sutter, but more of the influential events in his life. I believe this held the audience’s attention more, forcing them to pay attention. With each scene, I was eager to see what “Bootycandy” had to offer.
Braff himself has a warm, easy-to-watch screen presence. He can say nothing during the lull in a conversation, while the camera remains focused on his face, and it feels right. Portman and Sarsgaard are also genuine, each wonderfully relaxed in their roles. Production design is superb: details in every scene are arranged well, and the photography, by Lawrence Sher, is - like the story and the acting – unpretentious, never distracting, tricky or cute. This film never seems to manipulate us; instead it engages us, arouses our curiosity and amusement, bids us gently to care about Andrew and Sam and even Mark, leaving us entertained in the best sense. This movie is as confident, as secure in itself, as comforting, as a well worn pair of house slippers or your favorite reading chair. A splendid film. Grade: A- (09/04)
The film Clueless praises the white rich feminine voice. The film begins with high school students from Beverly Hills shopping, partying, and spending money as the kids in America. This economic capital is unrealistically flaunted as the normal life of a teenage girl. Cher’s father, as a lawyer, earns $500 per hour. His occupation allows Cher to have a jeep, designer clothes. Her economic status puts her at the top of the academic social hierarchy. Her persuasiveness and popularit...
The film Rudy (Fried, Friedman, Mayes, Mintz, Pizzo, Woods & Zinman, 1993) is a coming of age tale centered on the protagonist, Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger’s, attempts at gaining admission to Notre Dame University, and subsequently playing on their football team. Rudy encounters significant academic resistance as he works to get into Notre Dame, and then once again as he is simply a “tackling dummy” for the football team for much of his college career. However, Rudy is determined to succeed in his dream of suiting up to play as a Notre Dame Football player. After some success playing high school football, Rudy realizes his grades and inability to afford tuition will prevent him from attending Notre Dame right away. Going to work in the local steel mill like his father and older brothers gives him time to reflect on his choice.
Generations of kids have now grown up with John Hughes's teen movies, and they continue to speak to teenagers. John Hughes was able to create realistic teen dialogue in his movies, but more importantly, he was able to capture real teen dilemmas. It's no wonder that his films could transcend individual generational experiences.
Pleasantville is a film set around two teenagers who happen to fall into the predictable 1950s’ black and white sitcom, Pleasantville. The show represents a very stereotypical image of what American culture was known for in the 50s’, in regards to gender roles, segregation of races, and basic societal standards. With a society, so bland, David and Jennifer bring along their personalities that influence new ideas and innovation, keenness for knowledge and most importantly a display of freedom. As the citizens of Pleasantville became exposed to new experiences and opportunities, an eruption of “intense” emotions took over the town, which led to the outburst of the symbol of colour. These abrupt changes to the society’s norms highlight the uneasiness that follows change: unrest, an eagerness to break out of gender roles and most importantly the grasp for freedom.
Hi Debbie. I enjoyed reading your writing because I agree with you that how the films portray the reflection of the reality. As you mention, “There are many films that portray high school age based actors to display how the young teens act nowadays in school. For example the film, Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters, shows the bumpy road that young high school girls go through usually on a daily basis". There are many movies that shows the typical teenagers of the American high school students. In the movie, Mean Girls, the main characters are play the typical types of people in high school, such as popular blond girl, two friends who are exactly like her, and her handsome boyfriend who plays football. I liked your
In “High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies” David Denby criticizes movies portraying high school. He writes “The most commercial and frivolous of genres harbor a grievance against the world” (426). In many movies starting in the early 90’s you began to see an extreme amount of disrespect to adults from teenagers. High school movies are filled with unruly
Teenage films are often thought of films focused on issues such as teen angst, conflict with parents, coming of age, and most notably rebellion. Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause(1955) is one of the first films that could be classified as such. In today’s times, many films that fall into this genre follow the same structure as Rebel without a Cause in that perceptions and activities of youth defy what is considered to be a seemingly more stable adult life. Prior to Rebel Without a Cause, there wasn’t a film that challenged the ideas of masculinity in society and the struggles that teenagers endured in that era, so it is no surprise that the film is considered to be the poster child of youth rebellion in the 1950’s. Ray brings to light a
There were many generational themes that came to light within this film, which dealt with a variety of issues that encompassed many paths that were taken. Each person in the film was dealing with very personal reasons that led them to coming to the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. In the next several paragraphs, each of the issues will be discussed including exemplars from the film.
Baz Luhrmann is smart in using young, attractive characters to make the adaptation more appealing to a more adolescent audience. Shakespeare would be proud of it. Through an explosion of colourful costumes, the audience is amazed at Luhrmann’s use of symbolic ensembles.
Of all the 1980’s films, that can be described as “Eighties Teen Movies” (Thorburn, 1998) or “High School Movies” (Messner, 1998), those written and (with the exception of “Pretty In Pink” (1986) and “Some Kind of Wonderful”(1987)) directed by John Hughes were often seen to define the genre, even leading to the tag “John Hughes rites de passage movies” as a genre definition used in 1990s popular culture (such as in “Wayne’s World 2” (1994 dir. Stephen Surjik)). This term refers to the half dozen films made between 1984 and 1987; chronologically, “Sixteen Candles” (1984), “The Breakfast Club” (1985), “Weird Science” (1985), “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” (1986), “Pretty In Pink” (1986) and “Some Kind Of Wonderful” (1987) (the latter two being directed by Howard Deutch). For the purpose of this study, “Weird Science” and “Some Kind of Wonderful” shall be excluded; “Weird Science” since, unlike the other films, it is grounded in science fiction rather than reality and “Some Kind of Wonderful” as its characters are fractionally older and have lost the “innocence” key to the previous movies: as Bernstein states “the youthful naivete was missing and the diamond earring motif [a significant gift within the film] was no substitute” (Bernstein, 1997, p.89). Bernstein suggests that the decadent 1980s were like the 1950s, “an AIDS-free adventure playground with the promise of prosperity around every corner … our last age of innocence” (Bernstein, 1997, p.1). The films were very much a product of the time in terms of their production (“suddenly adolescent spending power dictated that Hollywood direct all its energies to fleshing out the fantasies of our friend, Mr. Dumb Horny 14 Year Old” Bernstein, 1997, p.4), their repetition (with the growth of video cassette recorders, cable and satellite with time to fill, and also the likes of MTV promoting the film’s soundtracks) and their ideologies.
How American Beauty Changed My Life For those of you who have not seen American Beauty, it is about a frustrated suburban man, Lester, going through a mid-life crisis after realizing he has a crush on his teenage daughter’s friend. Lester is unhappy with life; he dislikes his wife (Carolyn), both his wife and daughter (Jane) do not respect him. Lester and his family get new neighbors, Ricky Fitts, and his family. Ricky goes to school with Jane and he likes her; Ricky like to videotape things, Jane is one of them. Ricky is a bus boy at a party, where he and Lester meet.
...movie that I fell in love with. But most of all I love how the story line is a great overlap into the cinematically engaging movie. There is a great use of camera, timing, shots and story line that are portrayed in this movie without being too overwhelming. This allows the audience to relax during the movie and just take in the scenes as a story from reality. To this day, and even still doing this paper I still come to find different aspects of the movie that I missed the previous times I have watched it.