REVIEW: YOUNG ADULT: R


I know I'm late reviewing this but I have a pretty big awards weekend coming up.  Over this the three day weekend I'm going to be watching "The Iron Lady" and the Critic's Choice Award for Best Picture-winning film   "The Artist."  I'm slowly accepting even though I'd like "The Descendants" to take home the big prize on Oscar night "Artist" will be the victor.  Another awards-season movie you must make time to see this January is Jason Reitman's "Young Adult."

Unlike Reitman's previous two films ("Juno" and "Up in the Air") this movie's gotten literally no Best Picture buzz at all.  This is very understandable.  The film is an awkward, uncomfortable and nearly scathing look at a life gone bad after high school.  I've yet to know what that feels like, and I pray it's nothing like the "Young Adult" world.  Charlize Theron, in a sure-to-be Oscar-nominated performance is devastating as young adult fiction writer Mavis Gray.  Theron plays such a vile, sarcastic and frankly delusional witch of a woman if you saw her outside of the movie theater you might just be tempted to smack her.

Oswalt stole most of Theron's scenes as a  troubled nerd.
Mavis' "Gossip Girls"-esque series has come to a close, and she desperately wants some attention when she goes back to her crummy hometown of Mercury, Minnesota, where they see Minneapolis has the NYC of the state. There she meets her old "friend" (more of an acquaintance she would insult) from high school Matt Freehauf, crippled by jocks who assumed he was gay, but he really isn't.  I don't know, it's just nowadays people don't seem to care about character development, but Diablo Cody's detailed script just makes the scenarios in "Young Adult" a whole lot realer.  Patton Oswalt gives the film another Oscar-nomination-ready performance as the lifeless but persevering Matt.  The character crushed me; he felt so real it hurt.

Up until the climax of the film which can be seen briefly in the red-band trailer on YouTube, you don't understand why Mavis is so bitter with life.  Once you do find out you somewhat sympathize with her, if only a little bit.  It's a dark comedy that's more witty and observational then hilarious, and it is far from feel-good.  It's a short gem of a character study that's thoroughly enjoyable.  Here's hoping Theron walks away with the best comedy actress award at the Golden Globes tomorrow!

RATING: 3/4 stars. (I've switched to star ratings!)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THOUGHTS ON TOM HARDY

Image
When things become a sucess, I don't know, I feel like I missed them, I blink, and all of a sudden they're a huge success.  Like the TV show "Modern Family."  I decided I'd give it a chance because I love Ed O'Neil from "Married...with Children," and of course the pilot killed.  By the end of the first season people were declaring it one of the best sitcoms ever, it had enormous Emmy buzz...and I just feel like I missed the moment where "Modern Family" became this massive success.  I love the show though, it's one of the few new things on TV I watch nowadays.  That's why I feel accomplished when I'm able to see a superstar being born in Tom Hardy when I watched "The Dark Knight Rises" last week.  "Inception" already made him a breakout star back in 2010, but his performance as Bane really cemented his celebrity status.  I don't even like that word "celebrity," it cemented his status as a gifted,
Read more

CLASSIC REVIEW: FINDING NEMO

Image
No offense, but if you went to "Finding Nemo 3D" you're a schmuck.  That's a terrible way to open a review, but let's be truthful here.  You only went to "Nemo" for two reasons: either to see your favorite ocean-dwelling friends Marlin and Dory navigate Marlin's lost son in the third dimensional, or to experience this epic adventure for the first time ever.  Either way you're going to get cheated. Just like "The Lion King" before it and the mixed success of "Beauty and the Beast," Disney's been trying to cram 3D re-releases down America's throats lately.  I have news for errr-body: YOU CAN BUY THESE MOVIES, YOU KNOW.  Practically every Mom with a kid born in the 90's (That's me!) owns a copy of those three movies. Son, I was RAISED on "The Lion King," and if I had had the opportunity to see it in 3D last year, something everybody did, I would've.  The justification of seeing these 90's jewel
Read more

REVIEW: THE BOURNE LEGACY

Image
Suffice it to say Mr. Jeremy Renner is having a moment.  After 2 Oscar nominations for work in action films, Hollywood clearly knew where to put him.  In a matter of recent months Renner has established himself as Hawkeye, the successor to Tom Cruise if he ever leaves the "Mission: Impossible" series (which he probably won't, now that he's got some free time on him) and now the successor to Matt Damon in the Bourne movies I've been watching in this last month to prepare myself for "The Bourne Legacy." These spy-action movies are one of the best franchises put to film, and the hard work shows if you ever look at a Bourne behind-the-scenes extra, they actually go to these places Bourne goes: Paris, Tangier, Madrid.  It's hard work, especially for Damon, who was probably tired of playing his never-smiling (seriously, look it up, he doesn't smile at all for the last two movies) rogue agent who just wants to find out who he is.  America obviously wi
Read more