[Locke]

The Spectacular Now made me realise I am at an awkward cinema watching age, I'm still young enough to remember just how shit secondary school was, the worst years of my life they were, but I'm also too old to really relate to the characters, or the events that transpire in the film. As I'm currently caught between these two points of appreciation of the coming of age drama, I found it very hard to care about any of the films incredibly generic narrative.

The difference however is the way the film approaches its subject matter, what raises it above its generic trappings is just how mature this film is. It has enough depth to make the Grand Canyon feel shallow and whenever you fear the movie is going to steer into melodrama soap opera town, the film reigns it in, constantly keeping itself grounded. It has as much drama as any episode of Eastenders, but the difference between this and Eastenders, is this is believable.

Easily the best character in the film is Sutter's Dad, played by Kyle Chandler. Tommy turns out to be a total piece of shit, but rather than making him into a pantomime villain he is naturally downplayed to feel like a more natural piece of shit and the movie wraps him in the complexity of adult relationships, and unreliable narrators meaning he is never used as a punching bag for the movie, to give the audience someone identifiable to hate. It's handled with incredible maturity.

And amazingly the acting lives up the stellar writing. The lead actor, Miles Teller, is someone I've never heard of, but I wish I had after seeing this as he tackles a character of great complexity, beautifully. He also has great chemistry with Shailene Woodley which makes their relationship very charming, even if the 'awkward realism' stuff is a little too forced to feel natural.

They're a fascinating couple, they initially seem to allow one another to build and grow, creating a satisfying on screen journey but then by the end you realise just how cancerous Sutter is. He ruins a sweet, innocent girl and it's heartbreaking because in the end, in her innocence, she allows him to get away with it.

Also Brie Larson is nice to look at.