STUDENT LIFE CINEMA PRESENTS: 'THE TALKIES'

Young Adult (2011)

In the film “Young Adult”, Charlize Theron plays the role of Mavis Gary. The movie was directed by Jason Reitman, whose other works include “Juno” and “Up In The Air.” Mavis is the high school prom queen who decides to return to her hometown in order to rekindle her romance with her high school boyfriend. The problem is that her ex-boyfriend, Buddy, is already married and has a newborn baby. So the movie begins with Mavis receiving an email with an invitation to her ex-boyfriends baby shower. This irritates her because she feels that it is a slap to the face that they would even invite the ex-girlfriend to the baby shower. That’s when she packs up her belongings and has the crazy idea that she is going to steal Buddy back. Mavis returns to her hometown in Minnesota and quickly runs into the high school nerd, Matt Freehauf, who was beaten and disabled in high school because the jocks thought he was gay. Mavis and him create a friendship that night when they both get intoxicated and talk for hours. That’s when she tells him her plan as to why she is back in her hometown. As the story unfolds we learn that Mavis is a divorced alcoholic who is employed to write stories for a young adult novel. Her name isn’t even on the cover of the series because she is a ghostwriter. That means that all her work is credited to another person. The movie is advertised as a comedy but in reality it is a drama. The movie actually has a bitter and depressing mood to it and all the comedy is advertised in the commercials. The movie really succeeds at portraying the harsh reality of life and how you have to deal with it. I mentioned the high school nerd earlier because he too contributes to the message. His life is also really gloomy because all he does is work at a sports bar and then paint super hero action figures in his sister’s garage. I really enjoyed this movie because it gave me a lot more than I was expecting. I left the theater a little unsatisfied with the ending because it wasn’t happy for the main character. The ending does put out the message that life isn’t always perfect and sometimes you just need to deal with it.

Movie Rating – 7/10

- Chris Quesada