YOUNG ADULT directed by Jason Reitman, written by Diablo Cody, with Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt and Patrick Wilson. A Paramount release. 94 minutes. Opens Friday (December 16). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNNN
Screenwriter diablo cody may have started out as a charming wise-ass with Juno, but she’s getting kinda nasty. Using her trademark flair for real talk and tapping the competitive vibe of Jennifer’s Body, she’s created the ultimate mean girl in Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron), the main character in Young Adult.
Mavis has come back from Minneapolis to her hometown of Mercury, Minnesota, determined to snag her high school boyfriend Buddy (Patrick Wilson), who’s now happily married with a new baby. That’s not stopping the obviously deluded Mavis from believing that Buddy’s unhappy and needs to be rescued and that they’ll be setting off into the sunset together very soon.
Cody’s come up with a fascinating character, at once repulsive and appealing. Mavis, who lives on her own with a perpetually empty fridge in an awful high-rise, ghostwrites a series of young adult books. (Cody herself is working on the screenplay for a film based on the Sweet Valley High series.) Despite the fact that she’s on the brink of failure – she’s on the last volume of her meal ticket book series – Mavis feels superior to everyone in Mercury. And when she’s talking trash, she’s vicious – and hilarious.
Theron inhabits the role fearlessly in a performance that rivals her Oscar-winning turn as Aileen Wuornos in Monster. And this time she doesn’t have a makeup artist to co-credit. She’s at once beautiful and hard to look at, especially when drunk or half-nude (imagine that), cruel and vulnerable, a grown-up with the emotional intelligence of an 18-year-old. A young adult, actually.
Patton Oswalt is almost as good as Matt, the chubby guy whose school locker was next to Mavis’s she doesn’t remember, of course. He’s on a crutch, the result of a high school beating that’s left him with a limp and a damaged sex life. Mavis considers him unworthy of her time, of course, until she starts getting lonely in her hometown.
These deep characters are matched by pointed social satire. Buddy’s wife’s all-girl grunge band is gloriously awful. And Cody takes on media obsessions, too: reporters gave Matt’s teenage trauma huge attention when they thought he was gay-bashed but instantaneously lost interest when they found out he wasn’t queer. The big-box stores and strip malls that dominate Mercury’s landscape highlight the limitations of small-town life.
Cody’s got her knives out, and they’re sharp. Look for her name and Theron’s on this year’s list of Oscar nominations.
Oscar Odds
Oscar doesn’t usually acknowledge comedies, but it has shown love for the previous efforts of director Jason Reitman, screenwriter Diablo Cody and star Charlize Theron. It’d be great to see comic Patton Oswalt acknowledged as best supporting actor for his breakthrough dramatic performance.
susanc@nowtoronto.com
