The Spectacular Now
A24 | Release Date: August 2, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
41
Mixed:
0
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanAug 22, 2013
Has an honesty few movies seek or achieve these days. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 9, 2013
Here is the best American movie of the year so far. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 8, 2013
Original, truthful and moving. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comRoger EbertAug 2, 2013
What an affecting film this is. It respects its characters and doesn't use them for its own shabby purposes. How deeply we care about them. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 1, 2013
A marvel of well-rounded characters, strong performances and disarming chemistry, this deeply felt film is like a loving elegy to the end of childhood. It's easily one of summer's best films. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 1, 2013
The focus in James Ponsoldt’s affecting, intelligent drama is a pair of teenagers, and in them is so much complexity and heart that this casually paced gem feels rich in scope. They’re two of the most carefully created figures on screen this year, and yet their normalness takes us by surprise. Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 25, 2013
As a wisely devised teenage drama, The Spectacular Now treats kids and adults respectfully, even their foolish weaknesses. That respect extends to the audience. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 31, 2013
The Spectacular Now doesn't shrink from being an all-out teen movie (it has hookups and a senior prom). Yet it's one of the rare truly soulful and authentic teen movies. It's about the experience of being caught on the cusp and not knowing which way you'll land. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 8, 2013
James Ponsoldt’s film, and its stars, Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, continually take us in unexpected directions, giving the film an unexpected depth. It feels real, its emotions earned. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 1, 2013
A movie of uns — unforced, unhurried, unpretentious. Though it's sometimes underdramatized, this story of adolescents on the brink of adulthood is refreshingly, and endearingly, unlike the overheated features that have come to define the genre. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyAug 1, 2013
Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, as high school seniors Sutter and Aimee, bring such an authentic face of confidence and questioning, indifference and need, pain and denial, friendship and first love, that it will take you back to that time if you're no longer there, and light a path if you are. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJul 30, 2013
Director James Ponsoldt gives us long, loose, single-shot courtship scenes, each a marvel of staging and performance. Read full review
90
VarietyRob NelsonFeb 28, 2013
Skillfully adapted from Tim Tharp's novel, evocatively lensed in the working-class neighborhoods of Athens, Ga., and tenderly acted by Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, this bittersweet ode to the moment of childhood's end builds quietly to a pitch-perfect finale. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 15, 2013
A cleareyed, disarmingly tender adolescent romance that bears comparison with the best of its genre. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 2, 2013
The Spectacular Now's DNA contains elements of the John Hughes teen dramadies of the '80s. There's also a little Cameron Crowe - in fact, replace the soundtrack with something more dynamic and it might be easy to mistake this with a Crowe film. Read full review
88
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJul 30, 2013
Witty, warm and wistful and in just the right proportions, Spectacular is the best-acted film of the summer. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 22, 2013
Social critique isn't the main concern of director James Ponsoldt ("Smashed"). What he does is take us inside an unexpected, but not unrealistic, high school relationship and provide a splendid stage for two young and very promising actors. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJul 31, 2013
Anchored by a funny and especially credible performance by newcomer Miles Teller, Ponsoldt's follow up to his alcoholism portrait "Smashed" has all the hallmarks of a bittersweet teen drama with flashes of realistic comedy on par with "Say Anything" and "The Breakfast Club." Read full review
83
Film.comJordan HoffmanJul 31, 2013
From a distance The Spectacular Now is mere soap opera, but it is one of those films that grow more fascinating upon inspection. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensAug 1, 2013
This movie’s human scale, its unaffected compassion for every one of its far-from-perfect characters, is what kept me on its side throughout. Read full review
80
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldAug 1, 2013
Mr. Ponsoldt ably charts a journey through the high stakes of adolescence, with both Sutter and Mr. Teller showing great promise. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 1, 2013
A memorable, imperfect, heartbreaking summer love story, a bit soapy in spots but loaded with power and feeling. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 30, 2013
Nothing about The Spectacular Now feels easy or After-School Special, although it tidies up too much (the personal essay should be retired as a device). Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbyJul 29, 2013
The Spectacular Now goes a little soft at the end, but most of it has the melancholy sense of life just passing by — until, that is, someone has the courage to grab it and make it take some meaning and form. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 22, 2013
Most teen movies are cocktails of melancholy and elation. This one is best at its most un-transcendent —when it most evokes that period when we never knew what we were supposed to do with the pain. Read full review
80
The GuardianEd GibbsFeb 28, 2013
Ponsoldt elicits remarkably strong performances from his two young leads, who display a depth of feeling that's breathtaking in its simplicity and honest. There's an inherent chemistry here that's both disarming and refreshing. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 28, 2013
Ordinary in some ways and extraordinary in others, The Spectacular Now benefits from an exceptional feel for its main characters on the parts of the director and lead actors. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 14, 2013
An outstanding cast have crafted a delicate, eloquent picture of believable humans in so many gradations of hurt, but it stops just shy of catharsis. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 22, 2013
The performances by Teller and Woodley are so strong that when the tone starts to darken and the characters make some radical discoveries, all the usual trappings of adolescent angst melt away: You feel like you’re watching two real, complicated people. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyAug 15, 2013
By the end of the The Spectacular Now, you’re not quite ready to let these characters go. Instead, like director François Truffaut did with his character Antoine Doinel in a series of films, you want to check back with them every few years, to see how how they’re getting on. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 15, 2013
The Spectacular Now feels genuine in almost every respect, from the unflashy cinematography and the sparingly deployed music cues to the natural, unhurried performances of its two stars. They will get to you, truly. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie Merry,Aug 8, 2013
The movie captures the raw excitement and heartbreak of adolescence so completely that it manages to replace a seen-it-all jaded heart with the butterflies that accompany fresh experiences. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 8, 2013
The Spectacular Now is rare: a coming-of-age movie featuring a teenage couple about whom you actually give a rip. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 2, 2013
James Ponsoldt, who directed from a script by Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter, is a bit too glib to do justice to this material, but the young actors, especially Woodley, are quite fine. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 1, 2013
James Ponsoldt's funny and touching coming-of-age tale covers old ground with disarming freshness. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 31, 2013
If Ponsoldt can step beyond the 12 steps, he might make something truly spectacular. Read full review
75
ObserverMatthew KasselJul 30, 2013
Thankfully, refreshingly, The Spectacular Now never once feels like a cautionary tale. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezFeb 28, 2013
The Spectacular Now is wise beyond its years, charismatic, measured and authentic in its depiction of the pains, confusions and insecurities of the teenage experience, and while its deliberate rhythm may prove to be a harder sell among the teen crowd, it’s a valuable and honest film that’s worth the investment. Read full review
70
The DissolveScott TobiasAug 1, 2013
Even in its rougher patches, The Spectacular Now has a disarming earnestness that keeps it on the level, helped along by two superb lead performances that add up to more than their sum. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 22, 2013
There’s much to appreciate here. Like “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” which had a stronger sense of its place in the world, this coming-of-age movie should appeal to smart, sensitive young people who haven’t been exposed to the better examples of the genre. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerJul 26, 2013
Given the film's early promise, it's unfortunate how it turns into a largely reductive Freudian character piece in which the main character has to come to terms with his old man. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithAug 2, 2013
The teen movie The Spectacular Now begins like “Say Anything” but soon turns into “Drink Anything.” Read full review
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