Young Adult (2012)

This is a very interesting, more than slightly dark comedy on the theme of 'peaked in high school'. Mavis (Charlize Theron, in yet another role where a very pretty woman does not look her best) is the complicated focus of the movie. She is a character that does not bravely overcome adversity but rather openly causes adversity to those around her. The nuance here is that we feel sorry for her rather than hating her guts. Mavis is the ghost writer of a once popular young adult book series, but now the series is ending, she has writer's block, and really, her life is a complee mess. We can see from the moment the film begins that while she is still a very pretty woman, she really does not have much else going on. She is drinking like crazy, and she appears to have no friends. So what does she do? She decides that she is goin gto get back together with her high school boyfriend. I guess the theory is to go back to the last time that your life felt perfect, and then start over. Never mind that he is now married and has a newborn baby girl. Details. Surely he will go along with this plan. Well, it is not a well laid out strategy for getting your life back on course, and it fails spectacularly, but along the way there is a fair amount of entertainment--and in the end you really truly never want to be this girl, that is for sure. The script is written by Diablo Cody, whose work in 'Juno' was spectacular, and I was very much in love with this effort as well--I know, it sounds a little depressing, and it probably is depressing if your life peaked in high school, but if it didn't then you might just love this as much as I did.