Image Credit: Wilford Harewood
Remember how Elvis Presley looked when he was young? The perfect pompadour, the eyes a-twinkle, the smile so brightly and absurdly cocksure it seemed lit from within? Imagine Elvis reincarnated as a very tall and brainy American high school dude, with a quip for every occasion, and you’ll have an idea of the fresh yet slightly skewed charisma of Miles Teller, the gifted star of The Spectacular Now. He plays a high school senior about to graduate named Sutter, who would, at a glance, seem to have it all. Sutter already knows how to talk to the ladies — he looms over them — and the way he drops little aggressive jabs into his conversation could easily make him seem like a shark. Except that for all that snappy gift of gab, he exudes a sweetness that can’t be faked. He’s smart and clever and a little blissed-out, with a soft-edged understanding of other people. He coasts along in school, enjoys his part-time job (as a clerk at a men’s clothing store), and seems to get off on every moment of every day. So where’s the rub? During almost every one of those moments, he’s drinking (from a flask, or from a soda cup that he’s secretly spiked with whiskey). He’s precocious as hell, yet he lives in the moment, in the happy buzzed now, because he’s not interested in imagining a future. READ FULL STORY »
