Diected by Jason Reitman
Written by Diablo Cody
Starring Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt and Patrick Wilson
Released 10th February (Ireland)
Reuniting indie darling director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) and the divisive Diablo Cody (Juno, the underrated Jennifer’s Body) for the first time since Cody’s 2007 debut Juno, Young Adult can be viewed as a companion piece to their previous collaboration. Where Juno was about immature teenagers forced into an adult situation, Young Adult is all about the adult desire to revisit and relive teenagerhood, a time too easily misremembered as carefree and liberated.
Charlize Theron portrays Mavis Gary, author of a bland but successful series of YA novels about teen romance and drama at a posh preperatory school which is winding down (yes, there’s a Twilight dig but just one and wisely it’s not laboured). Upon receiving a mass email about her High School sweetheart (Patrick Wilson, charmingly doofy and likeable here)’s newborn daughter Mavis convinces herself that now is the time to win her back and so absconds from her moderately fancy yet achingly lonely Minneapolis lifestyle to revisit her small town origins and win back her man.
In the hands of lesser filmmakers what would follow would be a twee paean to the joys of wholesome small town living where the quirky inhabitants of her hometown teach Mavis the meaning of Family and Christmas and she realises she was in love with her best friend all along blah blah Sandra Bullock blah. Thankfully that is not what anyone involved in this movie is apt to do and the result is something far more interesting, smart and darkly funny.
Charlize Theron is compellingly broken as Mavis, an adult who never assimilated into adulthood but rather surrounded herself with adulthood’s exterior trappings. Convinced she deserves a happy ending because that’s how stories have to end, Mavis is happy to tear apart a family because that’s how things would work out best for her and that’s what matters, right? Yet Theron’s ability to show Mavis’ vulnerability and genuine pain through all her bluster and cruelty allows us to simultaneously root for her and be horrified by her actions. No small feat, this may be her strongest performance since Monster.
Also noteworthy is the always-excellent Patton Oswalt’s performance as Matt, a High-School acquaintance who strikes up an odd friendship with Mavis. Left disabled since High School after a horrifying assault due to a case of mistaken sexual identity, Matt could have been an archetypal tubby comedy nerd and does indeed deliver many of the film’s funnier lines while serving as a kind of Jiminy Cricket of logic and reason to Mavis’ insanity. Yet Oswalt infuses his performance with an undercurrent of sadness and repressed fury and shows a dramatic range and subtlety that may surprise even those who’ve enjoyed his previous dramatic turn in the tragically underseen Big Fan. Hopefully this time he’ll get the notice he deserves.
A powerful, funny and affecting dose of anti-nostalgia, Young Adult comes with my highest recommendation.
10/10
