Young Adult

As far as I am concerned, Jason Reitman is one of the best new(ish) directors in the business. Thank You For Smoking was hilariously satirical, Juno was groundbreaking in that everyone wants to have an Ellen Page of their own, and Up In The Air was Oscar worthy in every sense of the word. Three hits in a row, Reitman was pumping out success after success. Then here comes Young Adult to ruin this wonderful streak. At least he got the hat trick. It's not that Young Adult is a bad film, it is just completely on a lower level than Reitman's other films.

Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) was prom queen, homecoming queen, the prettiest girl in high school and in a small Minnesotan town, the only one who looked like they might actually go somewhere. In between marathons of Keeping up with the Kardashians and guzzling down diet coke like its water, Mavis is a ghost writer for a very popular young adult (ha get it?) series for teenage girls. Mavis constantly dresses like its bed time and the only sign of life in her bleak apartment is her little poofball of a dog.

Then one day Mavis gets an email from her ex-boyfriend that he is having a kid. Convinced that he must be miserable in their home town, Mavis goes back to try and reconnect with Buddy (Patrick Wilson). One problem, he's married and pretty happily at that.

If there is any movie that will make you feel bad for the pretty girl in high school, its this one. But right when you do, the movie goes right ahead and says, "F--- pretty girls, you shouldn't care for them."

Charlize Theron is fantastic as the grown up prom queen. She is a fantastic actress in general but the facial expressions, or lack of, are so real I feel like I'm back in the hallway hoping the pretty girls will talk to me. But luckily, the other side of high school is represented by Patton Oswalt as Matt. In high school Matt was taken out behind the school and beaten with a crowbar by the jocks because they thought he was gay. Now, Matt is a cripple living at home with his sister, forced to limp everywhere. His realism contrasts against Mavis' stupid optimism about her future with Buddy.

The acting is amazing. The range of emotion between Patton Oswalt and Charlize Theron is award worthy. If only the content was as well. Even though this is labeled as a comedy, you won't leave the theater thinking it was. While some parts are funny, some endearing, and some sad, all of it is a depressing look at life after popularity.

I just wanted someone to learn something. Mavis' cries for help go unheeded by even her parents. She finally admits she might be an alcoholic and they brush it off like its nothing. I wanted to cry, someone help her. The only person trying is Matt and she blows him off like her parents blew her off. But in the end, the one chance Mavis has to learn something, and honestly she did, this stupid #%$@% comes in and ruins it all just because she wanted to be popular like Mavis. I couldn't believe it. And Mavis, like the conceited girl she is, accepts it and goes back to her life unchanged.

I was so depressed, no one learned anything, there was no moral that I could see and if that's the point of the movie well bravo Jason Reitman, you did it. I just don't know what it is.

2 out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell