Director James Ponsoldt is quickly becoming a defining voice in a very specific approach to filmmaking. His work goes beyond the typical milieu that one would expect from a dramedy. Rather than pigeonholing himself to one type of story, Ponsoldt is interested in letting the camera roll on the range of emotions felt on any given day. The result is a body of work that strives to capture every day life that manages to find a rare honesty in the laughter and struggles of characters of all ages.
This cocktail of balancing comedy and drama is a tricky mix for most filmmakers, let alone someone who practically came out of nowhere at Sundance with the critically acclaimed hit Smashed. The well-received 2012 film saw Aaron Paul and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a couple struggling with alcoholism while trying to build their foundation despite being struck by a crippling and often humorous disease.
Sticking with the same thematic elements, Ponsoldt has followed that up with the impressive The Spectacular Now. The film is a coming-of-age dramedy based on Tim Tharp’s novel, and is adapted by the brilliant writers from (500) Days of Summer, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. The film focuses on Sutter Keely, who is someone we all knew from high school. He’s one of those “invincible” boys, that parties too hard, and seems to effortlessly float through life on the outside, but on the inside has yet to overcome enormous issues that are far more complicated than his age group might give him credit for. Sutter finds himself, against all odds, drawn to Aimee (Shailene Woodley), who gives him a purpose beyond the Saturday afternoon hangover.
What could have been an ordinary story or one with extreme didactic measures, takes a leap in James Ponsoldt’s lens and flourishes under his earnest expertise. The Inquisitr’s Niki Cruz spoke with the filmmaker about The Spectacular Now, capturing a hybrid genre, and being a leading voice of a hungry generation.
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THE INQUISITR: One of the many things I love about your films is that they’re all honest portrayals of life. They aren’t black or white, there’s humor that comes out of moments of tragedy. Why do you think you have such a firm grasp on the dichotomy of tragedy and comedy?
JAMES PONSOLDT: Maybe it’s the worldview that I have. I always found it really strange that movies can be so uniformly lumped. The video store of my childhood had “the drama section” and then there’s “the comedy section” and it always seemed kind of funny to me. That’s not the way life is. On any given day from the time you wake up, to the time you go to bed, there’s tons of funny moments, and there’s probably some glimmers of tragedy too. Everyone has elaborate systems of coping mechanisms to get through the day. To me life is a series of gentle, funny, and tragic moments.
THE INQUISITR: You’ve made a series of films that are all really intimate portraits of alcoholism, even though these characters are dealing with other underlying issues. Do you see all of these films commentating on one another?
PONSOLDT: It’s interesting. It was important to me that Smashed worked as a love story. That if it didn’t have alcohol in it that it would still work. Ultimately it’s about what you have to give up for your partner. I wanted it to be meaningful regardless, and I didn’t want it to be an issues film. Alcohol was at the forefront of it, and it’s something that I had been dealing with, and my writing partner on that had personally dealt with too. I think with The Spectacular Now drinking is part of the character but I didn’t want to hit the alcohol too hard. Coming after Smashed I was acutely aware [LAUGHS]. The way Sutter drinks is not dissimilar to the way tons of other people drink in high school. It’s kind of hard to tell whether it’s how people engage with each other socially or if they actually have a problem, because everybody drinks so much in high school and college.
THE INQUISITR: Being that you’re both a director and a storyteller, how was the process of collaborating with Scott and Michael on The Spectacular Now?
PONSOLDT: It was great. I know there’s a lot of films where the writers get shortchanged and they’re not a part of the process. In some cases they’re not even invited to set, which I find horrible. Once I embraced that I loved this story and that I was going to make it my own in a million ways, I wanted to keep Scott and Michael a part of the process as much as possible. They were one hundred percent down. Mike came to Athens where we shot the film. Writers are some of the greatest advocates for the characters. I think they should always be kept a part of the process. It seems like a no brainer to me.
THE INQUISITR: The character of Stutter had such an extreme energy. He had to embody all of these different qualities. Was it difficult finding someone who could pull it off as effortlessly as Miles (Teller)?
PONSOLDT: Yeah. I had seen Rabbit Hole with Miles acting opposite Nicole Kidman and he just blew me away. He felt like a regular kid that had just somehow wandered into a movie with Nicole Kidman [LAUGHS]. He gave such a stunning performance where it was all in his eyes. Then I saw him in the Footloose remake [LAUGHS] and it was such a different performance, in such a different movie. I couldn’t believe it was the same kid. I met with him and talked to him for hours and realized that he’s an amazing actor with a fantastic imagination. He was Sutter to me.
THE INQUISITR: Miles (Teller) and Shailene (Woodley) seem like they’re really at the top of their game. Did you have any preconceived notions about them? Although Miles is older, how was that whole experience directing young people in very adult material?
PONSOLDT: I had seen Miles do it before. Shailene I had seen her in The Descendants and thought she was amazing. She gave a performance that lacked any vanity, and it was a really smart and honest performance. She was willing to make her character a brat if that’s what the performance called for. It reminded me of the performances I really loved, like younger Sissy Spacek performances or Barbara Hershey. I knew these were actors with a lot of depth, and intelligence. It used to be that you were able to make a lot of movies about young people with complicated emotions like Splendor in the Grass or Rebel Without A Cause, or Dazed and Confused. The characters just happened to be teenagers.
THE INQUISITR: Do you think being in independent film gives you the space to create those types of stories?
PONSOLDT: Yeah. I think the more money that’s spent on something; the more people will want to monitor their investment a little more. At the end of the day The Spectacular Now is an R-rated drama with teenagers. That’s a bulls eye within a bulls eye. Most films, if they’re going to be about young people they’re going to be about vampires, or witches, or werewolves. That said, I think younger audiences have an appetite for this. I think The Perks of Being A Wallflower was a jolt and reminded studios that people like John Hughes and Cameron Crowe really did right by these types of movies. I hope to see more films about young people that are complicated, honest, and emotional, not just about kids that can fly.
THE INQUISITR: I keep on thinking back to the dinner table scene in the film. What do you think would happen if the characters from Smashed got together for dinner with the characters from The Spectacular Now? What would they say to each other? Putting aside the fact that Mary Elizabeth Winstead pulls double duty in the films.
PONSOLDT: [LAUGHS] I think Sutter would think those characters were “Awesome!” I think he would say, “Woah! These guys are so cool!” He would want to party with them. Aimee would kind of feel a little sorry for them [LAUGHS]. After they all had a little bit to drink they’re just not at their best form, but I think she would be very kind. Aimee is very compassionate. She would think, “Oh wow it’s really hard to make a marriage work. These people seem really nice, and I hope they get through it.” I think Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character in The Spectacular Now would probably think, “Oh God these two characters are a little bit too rough and rowdy. How do I get them out of my house?” I like that!
THE INQUISITR: Can you tell me a little bit about Rodham, the Hillary Clinton film you’re working on?
PONSOLDT: Yeah it’s this really fantastic script that Young Kim wrote. We’re just slowly going through the script and we’re trying to make it pitch perfect because it’s a really a tight rope to walk, in terms of tone. It’s not going to shoot any time soon but it’ll happen in the next couple of years hopefully.
THE INQUISITR: What type of person are you depicting Hillary as in Rodham?
PONSOLDT: Rodham depicts Hillary at a very specific time in her mid-twenties when she was just out of Yale Law School. She was put on this House Judiciary Committee to try to impeach Nixon. She was the only woman in about fifty people. She was a brilliant, driven, very funny, passionate person who was always trying to balance her personal life. She was really trying to decide between her career and the love of her life, which I think is a very human story. It’s a sacrifice that anyone in a relationship makes, but it’s also a story about gender inequality. It’s the sacrifice that women have to make more often than men. She had a lot of conviction and believed in social justice, and the rights of children.
THE INQUISITR: I’ve been hearing rumors about Reese Witherspoon.
PONSOLDT: I love Reese and she’s awesome, but Hillary is a bit younger in age than that. We have no idea who’s going to play the part.
THE SPECTACULAR NOW HITS THEATERS FRIDAY, AUGUST 2.