Young Adult
Directed by Jason Reitman
- comedy
- drama
The story
A divorced writer from the Midwest returns to her hometown to reconnect with an old flame, who's now married with a family.
What it’s like
Bright, flat suburban daylight and sun-washed strip-mall streets give way to the cramped, slightly sour interiors of a writer's apartment, where cool blue screens and clutter do most of the talking. Jason Reitman frames his compositions cleanly and often holds on a character a beat too long, so the discomfort lands in the stillness rather than in cutting. Diablo Cody's dialogue is quick and cutting, and the score stays light and jaunty, a pleasant surface over something mean. The vibe is brittle, wry and faintly embarrassing, the feeling of watching someone refuse to grow up in plain sight. It suits a grey afternoon or a late evening when you want something sharp rather than soothing. Intensity is low: there is drinking, some crude humour, a few ugly confrontations and one brief, bruising act of violence, but no gore, and the cruelty is verbal and social. It is for viewers who enjoy unlikeable protagonists, dark comedy about failure and nostalgia, and character studies that find the sadness under the jokes.
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