Great Character: Sutter Keely (“The Spectacular Now”)
The Great Character theme for the month: High School Characters. Today: Sutter Keely from the 2013 movie The Spectacular Now, written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, novel by Tim Tharp.
If the confident charisma of Vince Vaughn merged with the everyman charm of Tom Hanks and was finally filtered through the sensitivity of a teenaged John Cusack — the movie birth certificate would read Sutter Keely. In the 2013 romantic dramedy The Spectacular Now that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on cloud 9 with critical high-fives, Miles Teller stared as high school prime minister of partying Sutter Keely with his Divergent leading actress Shailene Woodley who is his innocent reliable rebound Aimee.
When it comes to the spunky screenplay, The Spectacular Now benefits from being adapted by (500) Days of Summer scribes Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber who have since continued on with Shailene Woodley by adapting her mega huge summer smash The Fault in Our Stars. As Sutter and his opposites attract relationship with Aimee deepens: fears, college anxiety, abandonment and the agonizing nag of being misunderstand sprout extremely naturally from their identifiable teenage bond.
The Spectacular Now IMDB:
A hard-partying high school senior’s philosophy on life changes when he meets the not-so-typical “nice girl.”
Sutter’s family life can be summed up by saying that he lives with an overworked mother, more so in theory than physically, feels an awkward distance between himself and his older married sister and only has exaggerated memories of his flirtatious nomad dad.
SUTTER KEELY: Everyone’s telling me I’ve got to move on I don’t see what’s so great about being an adult. Are you happy?
It is refreshing to see a teen character that is aware that he doesn’t have all of the answers, but will try to anyway, if only to justify his Peter Pan never grow up status. To make matters worse, no one is all too excited to shepherd a reunion between father and son. Unfortunately, Sutter’s politely patient boss is more of a daddy dearest than Sutter’s invisible sperm provider.
SUTTER KEELY: If you were my father, you wouldn’t have to give me a lecture.
Now punctuate Sutter’s perceived lack of domestic love with his current break-up with his hot sweetheart Cassidy (Brie Larson), who has traded up for a partner with vision and ambition. Then totally make matters woefully worse by overflowing Sutter’s “cup half empty” with underage alcoholism, D+ grades and the ownership of the self-esteem-stomping perception that Sutter is more of a complete joke than an actual classmate and you have the DNA for a high school character ready to combust.
SUTTER KEELY: The real challenge in my life… the real hardship… is me.
Aimee may not be getting Sutter the multitude of jealous male lusting that Cassidy did. But, Aimee appears in his life just soon enough to heal some heart scars and hurl more helium into his deflated ego. In return, he rewards her with the secrets to his shrug-my-shoulders free spirit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE5WR3gTNB8
Sutter’s mask of smiles and sharing of cool points with swagger-deficient friends makes him instantly engaging. Sutter seems to prefer only living in the moment to prevent any connection to displeasures from the past and paranoia about lifestyle changes in the future.
SUTTER KEELY: The best thing about now is that there’s another one tomorrow.
Unfortunately, as they say, it’s not always wise to meet your heroes because they rarely live up to the pedestal that you put them on. Such a fall from grace occurs during Sutter’s bleak male bonding with poppa, who is preoccupied with being a player of “Bedroom Ball” during family time. Getting to see the ripple effects of Sutter’s continual disappointment turn his fake quiet storm cool into an internal tornado certainly accelerates his sympathetic qualities, while his self-defeating choices amplify to a fever pitch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz8bAo_53uw
The sad reality is that Sutter Keely feels he loves Sutter Keely more than anyone else, which painfully purges his priorities with Aimee.
SUTTER KEELY: What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you not see that I’m bad for you?
For his quick wit sunshine nature, his longing for love and his distrust of graduating into adulthood — Sutter Keely is a GREAT CHARACTER, throwing a dynamic modern spin into the high school hallways of coming-of-age stories.
This is a terrific movie, directed by the talented James Ponsoldt, highly recommended. Sutter is a specific character, but does represent that reality confronting the Millennial generation: tough economic times, fewer career opportunities, increased competition on the work front. Sutter’s response, to avoid those harsh truths, is one I think many young people can relate to.
Thank you, Jason, for this post. Please join us in comments to discuss The Spectacular Now.
You may follow Jason on Twitter: @A2Jason.
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