Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser.
Running Time: 93 minutes
Certificate: 12
Blu-ray Extras: Commentary by Jason Reitman, Eric Steelberg and Jason A. Blumenfeld. The Making of Young Adult. Q&A with Reitman and film critic Janet Maslin. Deleted scenes. A scene deconstruction.
DVD Extras: Commentary, scene deconstruction and select deleted scenes.
Charlize Theron has been a revelation in recent years, effortlessly moving between characters of all kinds, stamping her authority and she doesn’t let up in YOUNG ADULT. This time she stars as Mavis Gary, a writer of ‘young adult’ fiction, well, a ghost writer for a series that’s fast going out of fictional fashion. She’s left small town Mercury, Minnesota and moved to Minneapolis but one day receives an email that invites her back to her home town, to celebrate the birth of a new baby of her ex-boyfriend Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson) from high school. Unfortunately, Mavis is so lost in the world of her fictional characters, she’s inadvertently turned into one and instead believes it’s an invitation and proposition that her ex wants them to get back together.
On returning home, she bumps into an old school friend Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt) in a bar, a guy who had a locker next to her and, quite frankly, she doesn’t remember. He’s accompanied by crutches because back at school, rumours suggested he was gay and he was beaten sickeningly by the resident dumb-asses jocks and with that moment, Mavis remembers “You’re the hate-crime guy!” like it’s something he would be proud of…
To begin with, Mavis doesn’t want to say why she’s back in Mercury but after a lot of alcohol consumption, she confesses her real intentions. Matt, obviously, doesn’t think it’s a good idea and becomes her conscience/accidental friend. Oswalt’s character, despite his misfortunes, is snappy and honest but Mavis ignores him like the metaphorical Angel/Devil on the shoulder. 
Theron’s character believes she’s an adult but her psychosis is evidentially still in her teens, her sulking, lack of self-esteem and frivolous nature all adds to that late-teen struggling with certainty and dramatizing every little detail and this is what makes YOUNG ADULT so admirable. What’s ironically worrying is the truth here. An underlying feeling that none of us want to grow up or take responsibility and that distant fantastical hope of whatever is ‘meant to be’, but when it comes down to it, it’s exactly that, fictional and embedded into a world of fictionalised romanticism.
YOUNG ADULT is directed by the brilliant Jason Reitman (UP IN THE AIR) and written by JUNO cohort Diablo Cody, so if you know JUNO, then you know this is far from typical but, paradoxically, guaranteed to feel worryingly close to reality. For me, YOUNG ADULT has been overlooked a little and deserves more plaudits. It is satisfyingly dysfunctional, incisive and sharp and well worth checking out.
YO
UNG ADULT is released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 25th.
