Bret Dorman’s review published on Letterboxd:
The Spectacular Now
Worth Seeing: Yes.
Story: Aimless alcoholic guy meets adorably awkward girl and the two kinda sorta fall in love.
One Good Thing:
'Flirting in the woods.'
Aimee is a cute, charming girl but lacks confidence. She's very likable but doesn't know it. At least until a couple of run ins with super confident, super charismatic Stutter have her head over heels.
He invites her to a party and the two get separated. They later rejoin for a walk in the woods. The camera lingers ahead, cautiously leading them further down the trail into the deep dark territory of "a relationship." What's beautiful is that the scene plays out in one take, letting the chemistry of the two take the stage.
As he tells her of her charming nature, she denies it. He points out just moments ago that she had guys flirting with her at the party. But she innocently brushes it off as them being nice. He insists they were flirting and let's her know why, because she's a cool person.
By helping her become more confident he's really digging a hole for himself, since he is only interested in a friendship with her. While the story has its predictable turns, it earns its moments by letting the two grow together. In normal rom-coms character just blurt out The 'L' Word but in The Spectacular Now you actually see it happen.
I'm not sure if I see more of myself in Aimee or my exes, but often times people like us are good at looking at signals people give to others but completely misread the ones being given to us. So when Aimee denies obvious attraction and flirting and hears her crush tell her she's a person worth flirting with, it comes across more as sweet day dream fantasy than cynical formulaic puppets dancing the rom-com dance.