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In 2007, director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody teamed up for Juno, a quirky comedy that won Cody an Oscar and kicked off a big new trend in hipster indies. Since then, the filmmaking duo has headed in very different directions—Reitman to Oscar-nominated success in Up in the Air and Cody to, well, Jennifer’s Body.
When Reitman and Cody announced that they’d be reuniting for Young Adult, fans may have been expecting more of the hipster quirkiness of Juno. But Young Adult is absolutely nothing like Juno. Actually, it’s better.
Charlize Theron stars as Mavis Gary, the successful ghost writer of a popular series of young adult novels. Recently divorced and facing the end of the series, Mavis finally snaps when she receives an email from her old boyfriend, Buddy (Patrick Wilson), announcing the birth of his first child.
Convinced that she and Buddy are meant to be together—despite the fact that he’s now married with a child—Mavis packs her bags (and her little dog, Dolce) and heads back home to the tiny town of Mercury, Minnesota. Once she arrives, she begins working on her plan to steal Buddy away from his wife, Beth (Elizabeth Reaser), while her old high school classmate, Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt), tries to persuade her to give up and move on.
Knowing who was involved in making Young Adult, it’s easy to assume that it will be another chatty hipster comedy, with fast-talking characters who speak in their own kind of slang-filled code. But if that’s what you’re hoping for, you’ll be surprised—and disappointed.
Young Adult is a quieter, more relaxed film. Instead of cramming in as much snappy, fast-moving chatter as possible, it takes the time to embrace the quiet moments—to appreciate those little touches of reality. At times, in fact, it’s more about what isn’t said than what is.
Of course, that’s not to say that it isn’t still cleverly written. It’s brilliantly observant and wonderfully snarky, with plenty of backstabbing and manipulation. And Theron is at her best as Mavis. She’s cold and shallow and emotionally stunted, with an absolute distaste for the small town where she grew up and a complete disregard for other people’s feelings. She’s a horrible human being who has no qualms about getting in the middle of a perfectly happy family. Still, no matter how superficial and bitter and absolutely reprehensible she may be, you’ll still enjoy watching the train wreck that she’s willingly setting into motion—and you might even feel the slightest bit sorry for her. After all, there’s a reason for her madness—and, deep down, most of us can relate to her desperate need to cling to the glory days of her youth.
Young Adult isn’t as remarkably different as Juno was when it hit theaters—so it probably won’t get the same kind of buzz. But it’s a stronger and even smarter film, exhibiting a kind of maturity and self-awareness that we haven’t seen from Cody’s writing before. So even if the pop culture trendiness of Juno gave you a headache, don’t shy away from the filmmaking team’s sharp and surprisingly perceptive follow-up.
DVD Review:
Perhaps the most underrated film of 2011, Jason Reitman’s Young Adult was also given a pretty low-key DVD release. Not exactly loaded with extras, the disc includes just a few short deleted scenes, an interesting but rather laid-back commentary track (featuring Reitman and a couple of his long-time colleagues, DP Eric Steelberg and first assistant director Jason A. Blumenfeld), and one other feature.
Introduced by writer Diablo Cody, who explains why she loves Charlize Theron’s mostly unlikeable character, Mavis Gary, The Awful Truth: Deconstructing a Scene offers a quick look inside the filmmaking process. Using a single scene featuring Theron and Patton Oswalt in the town bar as an example, it shows lines from the screenplay, the various takes (with different inflections and slightly different dialogue), and the finished product.
Though the scene deconstruction is rather interesting (and it’s short enough that it doesn’t require a huge time commitment), the extras on the Young Adult DVD aren’t exactly must-sees. But don’t let that keep you away from this smart and observant dramedy.
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