- A character study of the high school
prom queen 18 years after the fact.
There are always a few films that get
mentioned around the Oscar Awards ceremony that got snubbed and they
“totally deserved” a nomination/award. I heard about a few of
these such films this year, one of them being 'Young Adult'. Come
Oscar nomination time, I compose a list of all the movies nominated
and check off the ones I've seen, the ones I need to see before Oscar
night and I take note of the movies that nominations got lost in the
mail. To jump ahead in the review, I guess I can see why people
wanted the movie to get recognition, I just don't know what Oscar it
should have been up for. Best supporting actor maybe?
The movie is really just awkward and
painful to watch, not in that it's a bad movie but in that the
characters Mavis (Charlize Theron) and Matt (Patton Oswalt) are so
jaded and broken as characters you feel terrible that these kinds of
people exist and flow through the world that seems so different from
ours. The characters are brutally
honest and filled with hate living outside the realm of reality.
You may know your own Mavis; the girl who had it all during high school - the attention, the looks, the brains. This was a girl who was going to get out of their tiny hole of a city and make it big, you all knew it. The problem is she moved on out of the city, but never grew up. Written/directed by the same duo that brought us Juno (Jason Reitman / Diablo Cody) it has the same feelings as Juno in so far as Diablo Cody can write as high school students. The problem that arises in this movie (and it is supposed to) is that it's coming from the 36 year old woman who keeps that 18 year old drama close to her heart. Mavis suffers from trichotillomania, alcoholism, and depression, mostly by her own admittance and it's painful to see almost no one take notice of her glaring problems because nobody really likes the girl that had it all in high school. There is a sequence where Mavis is walking into a home and this nobody in the background gives her such a dirty look you'd think Mavis is a convict. The real scene stealer in the movie, however, was not Mavis but her almost-partner-in-crime throughout the movie, Matt (played by Patton Oswalt). I've been hit or miss on his stand-up comedy and this is my first real time seeing him as an actor. He was given most of my favourite lines in the movie and certainly the closest character I could relate to within this movie. But unfortunately I felt the writing in Young Adult came off as a little more bland and unbelievable compared to the quirky and fun Juno, Reitman/Cody's last hit. Some of the more emotionally fuelled arguments contained no more passion and ferocity than you'd expect from a slapstick comedy. This was a borderline dark comedy but they never really pulled off the laughs going for a deeper sense of pathetic from most of the characters. I fear most of the scenes that Mavis is explaining how much her and Buddy are meant to be together are supposed to be funny, but ultimately fail.
 |
| What did you do to deserve that stink-eye? |
The movie is character driven by
characters who are flawed and know it, the redeeming qualities are
nearing none and it revels in it. This isn't a sit down with a group
of friends and watch movie, but a sit down and study just went wrong
with Mavis Gary in the years she was out of high school. A study in
awkwardness for the student nearing adulthood maybe?
It's an alright flick, perhaps even
worthy of multiple viewings, but only for those who truly like
dissecting characters to see what makes them tick. The general movie
goer and certainly those who find compassion for fictional characters
difficult should keep going and avoid this. I partially enjoyed the
awkwardness and found comfort in seeing adults fail in their thirties
so it grabs some extra points where maybe it doesn't really deserve
them.
I believe it deserves a 6/10
PS: Elizabeth Reaser who plays Beth
Slade could easily be argued to be an older Juno – though no actual
connection exists like that in this movie.
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