Comedy Pick: Young Adult (2011)
Anytime an Oscar-winning actress makes the conscious decision to play a character so completely despicable, it’s worth paying attention. Of course, the beauty that is Charlize Theron has never shied away from the uglier side of human nature in her filmic choices. In Jason Reitman’s Young Adult, she harnesses an undoubted talent for comedy timing – with facial contortions and accompanying teenage huffing so spot on, the barks of laughter will burst out without you even realizing.
Theron plays the stroppy 37-year old Mavis Gray, a contributing writer to a series of young adult novels. Upon hearing the news that her high school crush, Buddy (Patrick Wilson) has had a baby with his wife, she makes it her selfish mission to return to their small town and seduce him. Swanning about town, dolled up to the nines in an attempt to prove she’s “made it” – her sole accomplishment is, according to one character, something that hasn’t changed since high school; her impossibly-good looks. Fittingly, she still brandishes her “accomplishment” as the powerful weapon that it is.
It’s a simple premise with quirks in the tale thanks to Diablo Cody’s script, a self-serving manifesto for those unable to mature and make grown-up decisions. The sheer gall and disregard Gray has for others extends so far that you can only cough up a black laugh. After all, she’s a total mess.
Helping her, or trying to dissuade her, is Patton Oswalt, in the warm and witty role of Matt, planted as a cautionary guide who too can’t help but fall for her fucked-up charms. In fact, the supporting cast all turn in excellent performances, playing up their straightness and highlighting Gray’s churlish antics as the stuff of juveniles – but what’s not to love about juvenile adulthoods?