young adult

Director: Jason Reitman
Writer: Diablo Cody
Released: December 2011
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser and Collette Wolfe
—

Another classic Diablo Cody script! I love the dialogue she writes for characters who are (for lack of a better word) ‘real’. Jason Reitman is the director of this comedy-drama, who is responsible for the likes of Juno and Up in the Air.

Young Adult is about a ghost writer, Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron), who returns to her home town to try and get back with an old flame, Buddy. Buddy, however, is married and has just had a baby and is in no way interested in what Mavis is so obviously implying.

Mavis’ mum: That new baby of his is just darling.
Mavis: Have you seen it? …up close?

Her pessimistic and delusional outlook is something that [unfortunately] I love about her. She is rude, aloof and doesn’t care what people think of her.

Her language is just great though. The way she talks about marriage and children is like she’s talking about a disease that needs to be avoided. Mavis tells Buddy that ‘we can beat this thing together’ referring to his family. I’m tickled by that. This really isn’t a typical comedy at all.

Thankfully, during her crisis, Mavis meets a guy who she also used to go to high school with, Matt (Patton Oswalt).

Matt was severely attacked during high school resulting in him being disabled. But they bond over hating the same things. Mavis projects her hatred outwardly, and Matt eventually realises he has nothing to lose by expressing his anger around her too.

Mavis is such a lost soul though. She tortures herself by forever reminiscing about her high school days, when she was popular. It doesn’t help that she writes a ‘young adult’ series about popularity in high school, which becomes her diary disguised as a fictional teenage novel.

I love this movie because it’s character-based. It’s not fast-paced, just like real life, and hangs on to every emotion of the unstable Mavis, which makes you squirm. She’s so immature… But entertaining because she’s so expressive.

It’s not a movie for everyone. But I enjoy analysing behaviour, and I find the subtleties in this film interesting. She’s entertainingly perpetually disgusted with everything.

Check out my favourite scene in the movie here. It’s when Mavis Gary loses the plot at Buddy and Beth’s (Elizabeth Reaser) baby shower. It’s oddly empowering. Although I feel like I’m doing the wrong thing by taking her side.

I suppose this is a movie where the protagonist is the ‘bad guy’, and you can’t help but support and relate to her.

Jodie’s rating: 7/10

Top 7: Best Movie Meltdowns

Disclaimer: Contains frequent bad language!

I’m sure everybody has fantasised about flipping out. Here are some characters who release their wrath on our behalf.

“I didn’t get to try this F***ING COOKIE!”
I’m sure you all remember Annie’s (Kristen Wiig’s) flip-out in Bridesmaids. I can so relate. So hilarious.

“What is WRONG with you people!?”
Young Adult is a wicked film by the same director who did Juno. Charlize Theron plays her delusional character so convincingly.

“That’s all you’ve got, lady! Two wrong feet and f***ing ugly shoes!”
Erin Brockovich is scattered with sassy one-liners. I love this scene though. Julia Roberts is fantastic in this.

“You were HITTING ON HER!”
Prudie’s (Emily Blunt’s) emotional break-down is so well done in The Jane Austen Book Club. (You’re never gonna get me to shut-up about this movie.) I can’t find the scene on YouTube, but those of you who have seen the movie will know what I’m talking about.

Prudie’s break-down is just after her mother’s funeral where she thinks her husband was flirting with a girl she went to high school with. Just imagine Prudie punching you in the face with emotion as you read the script:

Dean: I talked to her… I talked to her for like five minutes.

Prudie: Longer. Longer, Dean. And with those ridiculous plastic boobs. Is that what you go for?

Dean: Prudie, you know, I was just trying to be nice to your friend. Okay.

Prudie: Chloe Baher is not my friend, Dean. Chloe Baher came to my mother’s funeral to gloat. “Ha-ha! Your mother’s dead.” And you hit on her! You hit on her!

Dean: I was not hitting on her.

Prudie: You know, when I was in the 10th grade, I wrote an entire paper on Julius Caesar in iambic pentameter. And Chloe Baher removed it from my locker and she read it aloud to the whole class. And everyone laughed at me.

Dean: Baby, high school’s over.

Prudie: High school’s never over.

“No dad, what about you!?”
Of course I couldn’t leave out The Breakfast Club. Finding out what it’s like in the Bender family household.

“I’m in the dark, here!”
I love Al Pacino’s character, Colonel Slade in Scent of a Woman. He’s blind and “can’t chew the leather any more.”

“A human life doesn’t mean as much to them as it does to us!”
You know what. 12 Angry Men is one of my favourite movies of all time. Don’t write it off because it’s old or black and white. It’s so powerful. Look it up! This is a great scene:

I’m sure you can think of more. But these are a few of my favourites.

Jodie.