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Title: Young Adult
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, strong language and sexuality makes this one for adults (though the title probably clued you in on that). Recommended for ages 17 and up. |
When Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) wakes up every morning she drinks two liters of Diet Coke, puts her makeup on, and sits down to write the latest chapter in a book series that is geared towards high school girls. Her problem is obvious but unspoken: She's a teenage girl who has gotten older but has yet to grown up. She's still living in the past, to the point where when she finds out her old boyfriend is having a party for his newborn daughter she drives home to see if she can win him back. Course, he's married with a kid and this much is obvious but try telling her that. “Young Adult” is the new film by Jason Reitman.
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It's based off a script by Diablo Cody, who wrote it after she was accused of writing too many scripts glamorizing high school days as if it was the highlight of life. Leave it a writer to prove her naysayers wrong by writing the very thing she was criticized for not liking. That said I'm not sure this makes a strong case that getting old is a good thing all the time. Mavis walks through life trying to stay looking young, holding onto youthful fantasies on what her future would be like. You could say she's living in the past, but it's not like the present looks so sunny. The only person who doesn't seem to look fondly at the past is Mavis's unlikely friend Matt (Patton Oswalt), who was mistaken as gay when he was in high school and beaten to the point where he now walks around with a crutch.
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He doesn't spend his time mourning for the life he can never have, but he doesn't leave his house much except to go to bars. Ironically, this is a guy whose locker sat next to Mavis's when they were in high school and she never noticed him until now, so maybe that's a sign that she has grown up a little. Unlike his previous films, “Young Adult” is neither positive nor very happy. In stark contrast to “Juno” and “Up in the Air,” that makes this film a bit harder to figure out. It's not a film I can honestly say I liked. I don't love Mavis in any real conventional way. I was entertained though. I also admit that it was emotional near the end when I discovered one of the reasons Mavis is the way she is.
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“Young Adult” is not Reitman's best film nor is it his funniest. It keeps you at arm's length the same way you do for the person you know in real life who's also like Mavis. Because of this, “Young Adult” may be one of the few films I've seen where the main character is LESS likable at the end then she was at the beginning of the film! Somehow this works though, and I can't help but wonder if any of the people I've known in my life that were like this are just as unhappy today as Mavis is. “Young Adult” is not Jason Reitman's best film, but it IS his most contemplative film! It sticks with you because it forces you walk around in someone's shoes that you don't like and never will like. Despite this fact though, I did like “Young Adult.”
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