Charlize Theron plays Mavis Gary, a writer of teen literature who returns to her small hometown to relive her glory days and attempt to reclaim her happily married high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). When returning home proves more difficult than she thought, Mavis forms an unusual bond with a former classmate (Patton Oswalt) who hasn't quite gotten over high school, either.
Jason Reitman has been a director that always manages to fascinate me with his very different but awesome films such as Thank You for Smoking and Up in the Air; even the one I didn’t love and feel is slightly overrated, Juno, was still a fairly entertaining flick. With Young Adult, Reitman makes a movie that feels so far away from Hollywood, it’s hard to not fall in love with it. Young may not be his best film to date, but he does manage to create his best character yet in Mavis Gary.
You know that bitch in high school that was slutty hot, got whatever she wanted, and stepped all over everyone she thought she was better than? Young Adult tells the story of that girl once she moves past high school and is inserted into the real world. Right from the start you are thrown into her world that has now become a state of depression clinging to the glory days of the past. When she gets a invitation to her ex flames- now wife’s birthday, she gets it stuck in her mind that the only way she can be happy is to have him back; and so begins the bizarre journey of Young Adult. You witness Mavis go through a lot of effort to woo her ex Matt, but it’s all pretty much moot. Right from the start you get a pretty understanding that he’s very much in love with his wife and are happy. What’s entertaining is that she doesn’t care; she will break the marriage if she has to. It’s quite comedic, but depressing at the same time, watching her go through this so blindly. She really has nothing and watching her head spiral to the end, never grasping what’s she’s actually doing is sort of tragic. At its conclusion, you feel sorry for this woman, but like all bitches, she doesn’t care about you.
Charlize Theron is absolutely perfect in this movie. Everything about her, from her clothes, to her face, her preparation, and her dialogue, just oozes out a person so disgusting, the devil himself would be proud. Despite appearing to have it all, she is a broken shell. Theron kills it going against the Hollywood type in playing a character that nobody is supposed to like, but still find enjoyable to watch. It’s because of her. The character is a lovechild from Reitman and Cody and what they produced was the best side of Theron. In a smaller, sort of buddy who asks questions to fill in back story role, Patton Oswalt is great. He’s a comedian that has shown flashes of a dramatic actor and he’s given the chance to show a darker side that you can hear in his comedy. His character is key in unraveling the disguise off of Theron’s Mavis and did a splendid job with it.
Young Adult is a dark social comedy that centers on an unlikeable character that does nothing but keep you watching. It’s one of the very best performances of the year that flashes the brilliance that is Charlize Theron. She is more than just a pretty face. If you’ve ever loved Reitman, you’ll surely love this. It’s almost if they continued Juno’s story and had her regret giving the bay away and she fell into a fire of chaos. It’s a late tiny sleeper of a film that is big in more ways than one. Be sure not to miss it.
Overall Score: 9/10
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