Vanity Fair West coast editor Krista Smith recently caught up with Mary Elizabeth at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival to talk to Mary about her new films The Spectacular Now and A.C.O.D. Click here to watch the interview.
Also, a couple more reviews about The Spectacular Now have been released. First one is via Slashfilm:
The Spectacular Now is everything I hope a Sundance movie to be. It has heart, many laughs, story twists that will jolt you from your seat, and most importantly, the film speaks to a deep truth. It is an honest coming of age film about growing up and facing the great unknown that comes after high school, something we can all remember and relate to. But it tells that story without the forced nostalgia of other Hollywood films.
The entire supporting cast is great in the few scenes they appear, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bob Odenkirk and Kyle Chandler. /Film Rating: 8.5 out of 10
The scars and blemishes on the faces of the high-school lovers in “The Spectacular Now” are beautifully emblematic of director James Ponsoldt’s bid to bring the American teen movie back to some semblance of reality, a bid that pays off spectacularly indeed. Skillfully adapted from Tim Tharp’s novel, evocatively lensed in the working-class neighborhoods of Athens, Ga., and tenderly acted by Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, this bittersweet ode to the moment of childhood’s end builds quietly to a pitch-perfect finale. Warts-and-all authenticity can be a tough sell, but Ponsoldt’s bracing youth pic seems bound to graduate with honors.
Woodley thoroughly fulfills the promise of her smaller role as the teenage daughter in “The Descendants,” locating the precise point at which Aimee’s infatuation with Sutter turns to self-protection. Equally impressive is Teller, who makes his character’s adolescent bravado appear intoxicating and then more than a little scary. The film’s supporting players are uniformly superb.
Geek Tyrant also loved the film:
The lead character, played by Teller, is very fun and likable. There is a Vince Vaughn kind of quality to his acting, and there were a lot of moments that reminded me of some of the characters we’ve seen Vaughn play over the years. I think he’s talented enough to have a decent film career ahead of him. The main female lead and love interest in the story was played by Woodley, and I thought she was fantastically adorable. She’s a hell of a talented young actress that I also enjoyed in The Descendents. She’s got a great film career ahead of her, especially after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes out. That’s when she’ll get noticed by the masses, and her career will blow up. As far as everyone else goes, they were all great! The other parts were small, but they are also very different roles that we’ve seen Leigh, Winstead, and Chandler in.
The movie is a realistic, believable, and honest story about the anxieties teens feel about the future. It also explores family issues and the impact of addiction. It is a heavy movie, but one that is enjoyable to watch.