Young Adult - movie review

Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody together again. Saying that, I guess I can add these two are showing some maturity even if the film is about a Young Adult author who won't grow up.

This is a film that's a bit messy, yet much of the dialogue won't feel anything what we are used to hearing from Diablo. Its quite restraint. Yet, there is this darker reality of it, and Charlize Theron's Mavis Gary is just a twinge of "Jennifer" from Jennifer's Body about how she feels toward life and those around her. She is the star of her own reality show in a sense..which I mean..as in her life. We see from the locals, when she goes back to Mercury, Minnesota, they couldn't quite stand her, anyway. The beautiful prom queen who might as well be the ice witch (Sound familiar? She's the witch in the new Snow White and the Huntsman).

Of course, she thinks she can come back and take her old high school boyfriend back, Buddy Slade played by the sweet natured yet oblivious Patrick Wilson. Elizabeth Reaser (From the Twilight saga) plays Buddy's wife. They've just had a baby. While Mavis is freshly divorced. Add to the geometry of the film is Patton Oswalt as Matt, the "hate crime" kid. Really, its Oswalt who steals the film. And in a sense its a bit haunting as in the reality of what is left of bullied grownups.

The film has its layers. To some it will be much darker than to others. And that's what makes the film unique. The fact that you can have different interpretations of this film. But all will realize just how Mavis sees herself. And how her past sees her.

The film definitely gives you all the different layers of Charlize's character Mavis. It has such a wonderful cast. The tiny amount of time we see of Collette Wolfe as Matt's sister is priceless. One has to wonder how many turns this film could have taken. Still Reitman is one to lay it all out for you and leaves you with a bit to think on.

"I don't want to make films that give you the answer. If there is a message to my films - and I hope there isn't - it's to be open-minded." Jason Reitman

STORYLINE: 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 married with kids.

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“The conventional knowledge in Hollywood is that an unsympathetic female character can tank a movie. I’m hoping that’s not true. I’m knocking on wood really emphatically right now, but honestly I have a lot of theories. Sometimes I wonder if it comes down to mommy issues. The idea of a cold, unlikeable woman or a woman who is not in control of herself is genuinely frightening to people because it threatens civilization itself or threatens the American family. But I don’t know why people are always willing to accept and even like flawed male characters. We’ve seen so many loveable anti-heroes who are curmudgeons or addicts or bad fathers and a lot of those characters have become beloved icons and I don’t see women allowed to play the same parts. So it was really important to me to try and turn that around.”

—	Diablo Cody in an interview about Young Adult (via isummonedyouhere)

This song really puts a perspective on things in the movie. Perhaps you might have a memory from it too.