REVIEW: ‘The Spectacular Now’ and the Perils of Being Charming

Call me an optimist, but I’m getting this surge of hopefulness that we’re seeing a return to psychological realism in dramatic feature films. I might very well be deluded by the fact that the indie films I’ve reviewed recently are coincidentally departing from the willfully quirky, contrived fare that became the mainstay for American movies emerging from the festival circuit over the past fifteen years or so. Even that progenitor of willfully quirky narrative,