Young Adult
Young Adult, which becomes available on DVD today, is funny, at points very funny. But not funny in an uplifting or cute kind of way, like in a romantic comedy. More like funny awkward, funny embarrassing, funny a little painful at times.
Mavis Gary (played by Charlize Theron), the young adult in question, is a successful writer of teen girl novels, but that series (which never bears her name on the cover) is coming to an end. And she’s recently been divorced. And she appears to be on a string of drinking binges. So Mavis, as the film begins, is at a low point, which might – just might – explain why, when the birth announcement for the daughter of a former flame arrives in the mail, she decides to return home and win her old boyfriend’s heart back.
Yes, he’s happily married. No, she doesn’t stand a chance. But Mavis is just narcissistic enough to believe it’s possible anyway – which means she’s pretty narcissistic. And that’s what this film is about – a young woman who is too self-centered to grow up and who lives in a nostalgic fantasy where she’s still the prom queen.
She’s running away, of course. Nostalgia is almost always an escape from a challenging present to a past that never really existed. She’s in so much pain that she just wants to go back to the one happy part of her life. That doesn’t work, and she makes a complete mess of things and ends up even lower than where she begin.
Which is usually the place where redemption happens. You know, the dark before the dawn, hitting bottom before climbing up again. And Mavis seems on the verge of doing just that, wondering how all these people she’s sure she’s better than still seem so much happier than she is. On the brink of a little self-awareness, however, she finds one fan who is willing to affirm all her narcissistic inclinations and the breakthrough never comes.
And so there is no redemption for Mavis. No growth. No real development of any kind. She gets close, particularly in her unlikely friendship with Matt (Patton Oswalt), a guy who was at the other end of the social spectrum in high school but who has had just enough hard knocks both to sympathize with Mavis and also to tell her the truth. But in the end all it takes is one ally in her self-centered delusion to help her avoid the painful endeavor of growing up and remain the young adult she is.
And that’s what makes this movie interesting. The acting is superb, the story sharp, but what’s fascinating to watch is a character who simply doesn’t mature in any discernible way. Growing up, as it turns out, is a communal endeavor, but so is staying immature. Which makes you wonder about the communities we’re apart of, the communities we help shape. Are we creating a community where we’re each encouraged to take responsibility for our words and actions, or are we always making excuses, for ourselves and others, and so never reckon with who we are, who we want to be, and the distance we’ll need to cover to get there?
Young Adult, Paramount Pictures, Rated R
It takes a village to raise an adult.