10 Movie Scenes DELETED Because They Were Too Good
3. Sutter Drink-Drives With A Child - The Spectacular Now
James Ponsoldt's stellar coming-of-age romantic drama The Spectacular Now co-stars Miles Teller as Sutter Keely, a troubled high-schooler who is struggling with alcoholism.
The film offers a frank depiction of youthful substance abuse, though one unsettling scene ended up being cut because the filmmakers felt it was so effective in conveying Sutter's drinking problem that the MPAA would've come down on them like a ton of bricks.
The scene in question sees Sutter find a young boy wandering around outside a liquor store without his parents, and agrees to give him a lift in his car.
However during the drive, we see Sutter pour some alcohol into his own drink while driving, taking an otherwise heartfelt exchange between Sutter and the boy and imbuing it with genuine gut-wrenching suspense.
Ultimately the DUI episode ends uneventfully without any harm being caused, but one of the film's screenwriters, Michael H. Weber, noted that it was likely too raw and real a depiction of alcohol addiction for the MPAA to abide:
"Underage drinking and driving on the way to high school with a young kid riding shotgun? They'd probably bring the X rating out of mothballs for a movie with that scene!"