Mavis Gary is a 37-year old writer who made it out of her small hometown but never really got over her small town sweetheart. She lives the envious life of doing whatever she wants whenever she wants with whoever she wants. She’s a picture perfect comparison to women in her generation: has her little toy dog that she loves and hates, meets guys off of okcupid, drives a Mini Cooper with a Victoria’s Secret bag in the back, watches way too much reality TV, does Wii exercise in the morning, drinks from the bottle and eats ice cream by the pint. Oh, and she’s a cunt.
Young Adult is a hilariously real dramedy from the writer and director combo who brought you Juno (Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody). It stars Charlize Theron as the drop dead gorgeous bitch you’ll love to hate who wants to rekindle a relationship with her ex-boyfriend Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson) who is married and just emailed her a picture of his new nameless baby. She’s obsessed with him and knows that they belong together so she thinks they can work through that pesky lifetime commitment known as children. Along the way she must pen the last novel in a “Young Adult” series that she ghostwrites. It’s as insipid as the reality TV shows she watches or teens she stumbles upon but coincides with her own personal life and experiences. Diablo basically uses this as a narration over the entire story.
Charlize Theron is bum-chic in Young Adult
The movie begins wonderfully setting the stage for this amazing character that you can’t get enough of. She’s a mess and you’ll be drawn to the screen wondering what she’ll say next. Even though Charlize is stunning, she dresses sluggish like a bum for the majority of the movie dragging her feet as she walks. It seems that she doesn’t have a care in the world…except what Buddy thinks. While visiting Mercury, the small town out of the Mini-apple (apparently that’s what nobodies call Minneapolis), she stumbles on old acquaintances like Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt) also known as the hate crime guy. He’s great in the movie not only being his typical funny self but unleashing his acting chops unlike ever before. Patton and Charlize have remarkable chemistry while Matt and Mavis have this awkward relationship that you know can just never work out which is kind of heartbreaking.
Jason Reitman, Diablo Cody, Patton Oswalt and Charlize Theron at the secret San Francisco screening of Young Adult
Mavis also has to deal with her ex’s wife Beth (Elizabeth Reaser) and nitpicking parents. My favorite characters are actually the ones who are hardly even in the movie…they’re just so impactful. First off is the receptionist at the hotel that Mavis is staying at credited as “Front Desk Girl” (Louisa Krause). Her emo attitude is priceless. Second is the judgemental babysitter Daniel (Rightor Doyle) who has the perfect expressions for his role. You can actually see both in the trailer embedded below. The casting of this movie was spot on and even with a small cast and simple sets, they made a lot work. Without Charlize, however, this movie would be nothing…she played her role impressively well and will probably have a lot of people avoid her when she walks down the street now. She was relentless in her portrayal of that girl everybody hates and who doesn’t give a sh*t about it. But, she can laugh at herself
(which is one of my favorite scenes from the movie)If you’re a “young adult,” you’re going to have a lot to enjoy from this film and relate to. The dialogue is smart and says a lot of what people are thinking these days. It’s not stellar and kind of loses its way in the middle but the film pulls itself together for a classic Reitman-ending. It’s a very different movie so don’t go into it expecting anything other than laughs. I have no idea how they’re going to market this film because you can’t really categorize it. It’s a story about a psychotic ex-girlfriend who can’t understand why it’s so hard to be her. First world problems. This felt more of a small indie film than a studio production but so did Juno so we’ll see…
Tags: Charlize Theron, Diablo Cody, Elizabeth Reaser, Jason Reitman, Louisa Krause, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt, Rightor Doyle, Young Adult
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
