Young Adult (2011)

Soon after her divorce, a fiction writer returns to her home in small-town Minnesota, looking to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend, who is now happily married and has a newborn daughter.

Director:

Jason Reitman

Writer:

Diablo Cody

Stars:

Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 6 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Charlize Theron	...	Mavis Gary
Patton Oswalt	...	Matt Freehauf
Patrick Wilson	...	Buddy Slade
Elizabeth Reaser	...	Beth Slade
Collette Wolfe	...	Sandra Freehauf
Jill Eikenberry	...	Hedda Gary
Richard Bekins	...	David Gary
Mary Beth Hurt	...	Jan
Kate Nowlin	...	Mary Ellen Trantowski
Jenny Dare Paulin	...	Nipple Confusion Bassist
Rebecca Hart	...	Nipple Confusion Guitarist
Louisa Krause	...	Front Desk Girl
Elizabeth Ward Land	...	Sales Lady
Brian McElhaney	...	Book Associate
Hettienne Park	...	Vicki

Storyline

Mavis Gary, once the high school 'It Girl', now an alcoholic divorcée who writes a soon to be canceled young adult fiction series, makes the decision to return to her childhood home in Minnesota. There she embarks on a plan to win back her former sweetheart, Buddy. The fact that Buddy is now married with a baby doesn't dissuade her. Along the way, she forms a bond with Matt Freehauf, another former classmate, who has been left disabled by a beating he took from a bunch of jocks.

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Plot Keywords:

divorce | minnesota | classmate | alcoholic | baby | 

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Taglines:

Everyone gets old. Not everyone grows up

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 December 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Adultos jóvenes

Filming Locations:

JC Studios, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$310,263 (USA) (9 December 2011)

Gross:

$16,300,302 (USA) (17 February 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Denver and Delilah Productions, Indian Paintbrush

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS (as Datasat Digital Sound) SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of Matt Freehof's dolls is Nite Owl, one of the original members of the Minutemen, the team of vigilante heroes featured in Watchmen. Patrick Wilson portrayed Nite Owl II in the same film.

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Goofs

The morning after Mavis' first night home she is walking down the street in a dark shirt, zipper hoodie, and jeans and is carrying a diet coke bottle. The next scene shows her sitting on a park bench typing on her lap top wearing a striped shirt, and next to her you see a shopping bag with half of a red star visible to viewers, indicating that she went to Macy's. Then in the next scene (which is presumably the same day and same trip, as she is getting ready to see Buddy for the first time that night) she is back in her dark colored shirt while she is getting a pedicure. She doesn't wear the striped shirt and go to Macy's until the following day (the day of Beth's concert when she goes to Macy's to buy her outfit). The scenes are out of sequence.

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Quotes

Mavis Gary: [singing] She wears denim wherever she goes. Says she's gonna get some records by the Status Quo, oh yeah! I didn't want to hurt you. Oh yeah!

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Connections

Referenced in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.23 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Pressure Drop"
Written by Toots Hibbert (as Frederick Hibbert)
Performed by Toots & The Maytals
Courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Arresting Development

This film is highly recommended.

Finally a holiday movie comes along that dares to ask, " Can a high school prom queen steal her happily married ex-boyfriend from his wife and newborn child and find true love? " From the team that brought us the classic comedy, Juno, comes the wickedly entertaining, and to some, offensive Young Adult.

Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody, this dark comedy explores the aspirations of a beautiful, vain, and selfish woman as she schemes to breakup a marriage and reclaim her former sweetheart, Buddy. Now divorced, Mavis Gary ( Charlize Theron ), a ghostwriter of teen literature conveniently found in the YA section of bookstores everywhere, has never grown up and never had the life she felt destined to have. ( After all, she was voted Best Hair in her high school yearbook! ) Her life is in ruins, an eternal victim of herself. She decides to return to her small hometown hoping to snare her former sweetheart ( nicely downplayed by Patrick Wilson ) and with that in mind, live some of the glories of her past life. As Mavis mentions in one scene, "Love conquers all. "Haven't you seen The Graduate? " She lives in a fantasy world, clouded by booze.

Giving her a reality check about her plans is a dweeb from the past, Matt Freehauf ( Patton Oswalt ), whom Mavis meets at a local bar. She doesn't so much rekindle their friendship as she never had time for him before, just not in her league back then. "Oh, you're that hate crime guy," she says when they meet. Insensitive, yes. That's Mavis, and yes, Matt was permanently injured in a gay hate crime during his senior year, although he wasn't gay at all. Shades of irony! ( Not that there's anything wrong with that, yada, yada!) Alcohol (and there's plenty in use when Mavis is around ) brings these two lost souls together, that and Mavis' far- fetched dreaming.

Theron has the difficult role of making such a repulsive and mean-spirited woman, if not likable, at least, tolerable. She never tries to ingratiate herself. Instead, she depicts a mean girl caught in the throngs of arrested development and expects the movie audience to deal with it. Her acting choices work beautifully inside and out. Theron uses her expressive beauty and sexual allure to hide Mavis' twisted and unpleasant traits. Hopefully, this honest and compelling performance won't turn off Academy voters due to its nasty portrayal of its anti-heroine. It's a wonderful job of acting.

Oswalt gives a fully dimensional comic portrait of a small town loser type with bigger dreams. He's living with his sister. He's alone. He's Mavis' conscience and he's working overtime. He's the voice of reason ( and the sensible voice of the movie audience as well. ). Oswalt plays his character as an endearing slug, a man-child full of sage advice and bitter disappointment. It is a finely honed comic performance.

Cleverly scripted, Young Adult is filled with smart one-liners that advance the action and are keeping with their flawed characters. Yet the film carries with it a more serious tone, not the laugh-a-minute movie one would suspect from the trailer. The characters and their situations verge on the real with the comically surreal. In an uncomfortable but pivotal scene, Mavis addresses Buddy's married life with consoling words and advice that " we can beat this thing together" and leave his KenTacoHut world behind. Cody's sharply observed and cynical view of small town life is imbued in her characters and may be distasteful to some moviegoers, although I found this film quite amusing and droll. The only objection to the film was in two of the film's final scenes ( which were effectively done but inaccurate to the characters' true motivations and actions).

Reitman is again drawn to damaged characters in his leading roles as he had successfully done with films like Juno and Up in the Air. He is relentless in his ability to make such complicated people completely fascinating as they free fall into despair. He makes their journey filled with ironic and satirical possibilities, making the negative positively comic in tone.

Young Adult resists the sweet rosy side of life. It humorously embraces the sad fatalistic notion of our everyday existence, supplanting upbeat and unattainable desires with a refreshingly downbeat sensibility. And that's seems very grown-up to me. GRADE: B+

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