The Spectacular Now
Release Date: August 2 Oscar Prospects: Slight The Spectacular Now, based on a novel by Tim Tharp, is a young love/coming-of-age tale about a typical hedonistic high school senior whose perspective on life changes when he falls for unique girl who is far removed from the "popular" scene. The film, which is directed by James Ponsoldt (who received fairly good notices for his previous film, Smashed, which chronicled the struggles of an alcoholic couple), was received enthusiastically by the Park City audience at Sundance. The film's script comes way of the writing duo who put together (500) Days of Summer and the film's cast includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Bob Odenkirk, as well as its two leads, Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley. Unfortunately for The Spectacular Now, as The Perks of Being a Wallflower found out last year, the Academy isn't historically kind to the coming-of-age genre. Even when these films have a decent level of critical backing, the Academy tends to collectively shrug its shoulders. Now whether this has something to do with the Academy's infamously elderly-skewed age demographics, or is simply a matter of taste, the fact remains that any movie in this genre with their eyes' on some Oscar kudos must be quite exceptional to have any hope of significant awards attention. If The Spectacular Now does manage to somehow beat the odds, blowing through the onslaught of coming prestige pictures that will be debuting during the festival circuit in the coming weeks, and is an actual viable candidate at year's end, it will most likely be a contender in the acting categories. The most uniformly praised aspect of the film coming out of Sundance was the performances of the film's two leads, Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley. While I find it unlikely, no matter how impressive his performance may be, that Mr. Teller would find his way into any acting categories given how stacked the male field is, Ms. Woodley, who likely nearly made the cut for Best Supporting Actress in 2011 for being the best part of Alexander Payne's The Descendants, could be a legitimate contender if she received a critical mass of critical support. The fact that Ms. Woodley is about to be the star in an adaption of a popular young adult science fiction series, Divergent, doesn't hurt either. I really don't expect The Spectacular Now to receive much more than a fair amount of "thatta boy"s, but you never know. Particularly in what looks to be an unusually weak field in Best Adapted Screenplay, the film's script could sneak into a nomination if whatever category Ms. Woodley is placed in proves too competitive to earn the movie the title of "Oscar-nominated film". Possible nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Shailene Woodley), Best Adapted Screenplay (Scoot Neustatder and Michael H. Weber)