Ponsoldt, Teller, share their thoughts on latest movie
“The Spectacular Now” ends today at the Nickelodeon, the AMC Dutch 14, and the Regal Columbiana Grande Stadium 14. Here is a portion of an interview with the film’s director, James Ponsoldt, and its star, Miles Teller.
The theme of teenage love or just young love in general is extremely popular among films today, so what do you think it is about that theme that attracts people of all ages to see these movies?
James Ponsoldt: Something I thought a lot about with this film was the difference between sentimentality and nostalgia, and the dictionary might contradict what I’m going to say, but what I’ve come to believe is that a lot of bad movies deal with young romance, kind of trade in the sentimental; things are really schmaltzy, that are easy platitudes, kind of Hallmarky, and they don’t deal with the real pain and anxieties of feeling like you’re going to have your heart broken or feeling like you’re going to be rejected or the fear of not knowing what you’re going to do with your life in the future, feeling like you’re inadequate, and I think nostalgia, which I think “The Spectacular Now” is a nostalgic film, it embraces the vast emotional spectrum of what it is to fall for someone and for it not to be the person to save you or change you irrevocably, but that is one small step in your evolution of growing into adulthood.
For the both of you, what were some of the things that inspired you while preparing for your respective parts in the filmmaking process?
Miles Teller: Well, I don’t watch a lot of movies, so I actually never saw “Say Anything” until recently, and I’ve never seen “Breakfast Club” or “Sixteen Candles,” so I guess for me the inspiration just came from my own high school experience but I think it is nice to be compared to those movies.
JP: Then for me, I’m a big film nerd so I’ve seen all of those movies, but they weren’t really inspirations for me. The inspiration for me was Tim [Tharp]’s novel and Scott [Neustadter] and Mike [H. Weber]’s script and really just following the characters and respecting the characters and then once we had real three-dimensional actors who had wonderful imaginations. I mean, they inspired me. And when we did watch movies, like myself and my cinematographer, [Jess Hall], we did screen some movies; we watched adult romances, movies like “Manhattan”or “Woman Under the Influence” or “Last Picture Show” or “Punch-Drunk Love” — I guess “The Last Picture Show” is teenagers — but I think it’s mature in the way it treats the characters. The most important thing to me was that this a mature, complicated romance of complicated characters.
In the press notes it says that this movie is a departure from all the superhero movies and raunchy comedies. I was wondering why it is so difficult to make an honest movie with flawed characters today in Hollywood?
JP: Well, I mean, I think it’s hard to make … complicated real people regardless of the age — and I think that is what you’re asking — whether they are teenagers or whether they are adults. I think a lot of studios are just moved to a place where they’re really interested in four-quadrant movies that have the potential to be blockbusters and franchises whether it is sequels and action figures and spin-offs that will maximize their profits. The films that all of those people in the studios love and respect, like “Say Anything” or like “Five Easy Pieces” or “Nashville” or any of those movies that they would put up on their walls, are not really in a place to (be made). A lot of that actually — the complicated characters with situations with stakes that are high — that has moved to one-hour television, shows like “Breaking Bad” or “Homeland.” But I don’t know. I think somewhere along the line people stopped maybe respecting the intelligence of audiences, but I think audiences are incredibly intelligent, and I think they are ready and waiting to see complicated characters on screen.
“Nashville” is one of my top ten films of all time, and I can’t imagine a studio making a movie like that today.
MT: No, me either [laughs].