Andrew Suk

Cinema- Joonhee Park

5/5/2015
The Spectacular The Spectacular Now
Recently, I have been falling in love with the romantic-dramatic
genre. The idea of love is the center of all human beings. Love is the
beginning of life. That baby was born because of love. That kid
experiences unconditional love from their parents. That teenage
experiences his first kiss. That adult gets down on one knee and asks
that special someone to marry him. At first glance, The Spectacular
Now, directed by James Ponsoldt, is a typical romantic drama film. By
typical, I mean that there is a break-up, a period of distress, a new girl,
they fall in love, etc. However, the end of the film takes a slight turn of
the path of this over-used romantic genre. This slight deviation makes
this film so powerful and so beautiful to watch and experience. This
deviation is complemented and strengthened by beautiful
cinematography styles that focus on prolonged shots and a storyline
that has so many framing devices that bookend so nicely that it just
feels right after watching The Spectacular Now.
The cinematography in this movie is absolutely amazing. Most
contemporary movies these days have an average shot length of 4-6
seconds. I will assume that this it the average and anything over 8
seconds is considered a long shot. I calculated how many long shots
there were in the movie and got 34 shots that were 8 seconds or

longer. The longest shot of the movie was 3 minutes and 47 seconds
and this was the tracking shot of Amy and Sutter talking at the outdoor
party. From the database of Cinemetrics, The Spectacular Now has a
total of 634 shots. Although 5% doesnt seem that much, for modern
filmmaking, it is pretty substantial. According to Cinemetrics the
average shot length (ASL) of the film was 8.4.
Now what do these long shots do and how do they contribute to
the film? This film can be considered a coming-of-age movies where its
about high-school students that are transitioning out to the real world.
Therefore, this film is highly relatable to most audiences. To fully feel
how Sutter and Amy are feeling requires shots that are prolonged, so
that your eyes can rest and your brain can think/relate. Jumpy cuts in a
film like this would be very distracting and the film would lose its flair.
For example, the longest shot of the film, as mentioned above, was the
shot where the camera tracked Sutter and Amy moving away from the
outdoor party. They first talked about how Sutters alcohol was
undrinkable, then Sutters past interactions with his father, then Amy
talking about getting into college but her mother not letting her go,
then Sutter teaching Amy how to stand up for herself, and then Sutter
finding out that Amy has never had a boyfriend. This scene is
essentially the first scene where Sutter and Amy really start getting to
know each other and it also is the first scene where Sutter kisses Amy
and this romance starts. We, as the audience, all have had these types

of interactions, where you and a crush start talking and the only thing
that matters is the conversation. The director strategically wanted to
keep the camera tracking and not to jump to another cut, in order to
allow the audience to remember a time where they had a similar
experience. Prolonged shots like this one are strategically placed for
the audience to take a breath and reflect on their own lives. That is the
reason why this film is one of my favorite film, because it makes me
think and reflect about my life and my past experiences.
Throughout the whole movie, Sutter, the main character,
struggles with the idea about love. There are three key moments in the
film where he talks about love: 1. Talking about his ex-girlfriend and
how everybody loved us 2. Before Amy gets into the accident and
insists that she cares about Sutter 3. His last conversation with his
mom where his mom says, everyone loves you so much. The film
does not use the word love lightly in the film. Only in these key
moments does the word or idea of love come up. In the beginning of
the film, when first writing to the college applications, he talked about
how he and his ex-girlfriend (girlfriend at the time) were the life of the
party. Sutter found love from other peoples approval. As the film
continues and Sutter started to hang out with Amy, Sutters
perspective of love changed. After the meeting with his dad went
terrible, Amy tried to console Sutter by saying that she loved him.
Sutter proceeded to reject this notion, saying that, No youre wrong.

You dont love me, you are just grateful that someone stopped and
show interest in you. Shortly after, when having the conversation with
his mom about his father, he breaks down crying, saying, nobody
loves me. His perspective of love totally changed because of the
betrayal of his father. Even though he had Amy, he had his loving
mom, and he had everything, he felt empty because his father never
reciprocated his love. Throughout the whole film, he was so caught up
with trying to find his fathers love and approval, but he was let down.
This father issue is also present when Sutter is talking to his boss
at the bowtie store in the beginning of the film. He jokingly asks,
When are you gonna adopt me. Although this is a subtle, halfhearted question, it is beautifully bookended with the later scene in the
film where after Sutter quits his job, the boss says, I suppose if I were
your father, this is where I would give you a lecture or something,
about what you are doing to yourself. Sutter responds, Well Dan, if
you were my dad, you wouldnt have to. This later conversation is
near the end of the film, after Sutter found out what his father really
was. The relationship between Sutter and his boss is essentially one of
those small details that show Sutters desire for a father, not straight
up tell the audience.
Both Amy and Sutter have issues with their mothers, at least in
the beginning of the film. Amys mom seems to take Amy for granted
and makes her work the paper route, even though she doesnt get

paid. Sutter has issues with his mother in that his mother will not tell
him where his dad is. Also the fact that Sutter doesnt do much to help
his mom out with cleaning and the bills, while Amy is almost
supporting her mother is a great juxtaposition of the characters
personality, especially in the beginning of the film. Amy is a hard
worker that works sometimes too hard and doesnt ever question
authority. Sutter is on the other side of the spectrum where he
undermines most authority figures, except his dad. Amy and Sutter,
together, explore what it means to live in the present and therefore
develop drastically.
One of things they explore together is living in the now. Sutter
has always been a carpe diem guy, where he doesnt worry about
tomorrow and only is concerned with the present. This is seen by his
attitude when he first writes the answer to his college application. His
life is just a huge party, where he is the center of the party. Sutter
meets Amy and realizes that Amy is just the opposite of this idea of
living in the now. Therefore, he proceeds to teach Amy how to live in
the now, how to embrace the moment. He introduces Amy to partying
and dancing and drinking alcohol, all of which Amy never did before
meeting Sutter. This is all harmless, until Sutter finally got to meet his
father. Sutter and Amy went up to see the father, who actually forgot
that he had to hang out with his son. The whole scene at the bar is
very awkward and tense because the fathers attention is not on his

son but on his friends and his girlfriend. At one point, his father says, I
live in the now and then excuses himself, promising that he will meet
up with Sutter and Amy later. He never showed up. That was when
Sutter realized that he was on the same path as his father. Living in the
now wasnt the answer to happiness. At the end of the film, Sutter
reflects about what happened and says, its fine to live in the now, but
the best part of now, is that there is another now tomorrow.
Sutter goes on a period of avoiding Amy after the accident. The
film ends abruptly with Sutter finally going to see Amy at college and
Amy about to say something. This is the deviation I was talking about
in the beginning. Most love stories wouldve ended with Amy running
up to Sutter and them kissing as the camera pans out to a beautiful
sunset. However, this film ends with a pretty open-ended ending. This
makes me, as the audience, think and thats why I love this film.