For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Young Adult
The Impression:
Jason Reitman wowed me with Thank You For Smoking,
blew me out of the water with Juno and then turned
around and took a dump on my chest with Up In The Air.
Big, bloated, unendingly cliché, Up In The Air was I,
still believe, one of the more overrated films of the last
few years. That said, Reitman has chops and a film pairing
him with Diablo Cody and featuring Charlize Theron in full
evil mode sounds at least enticing.
The Reality:
I want to say that Young Adult is one of the great
films of the year. It has stand-out performances by Charlize
Theron and Patton Oswalt. It’s moody and dark and at times
laugh-out-loud funny and a big relief after the hot gust of
bullshit that was the bloated Up In The Air. Diablo
Cody’s script is sharp and cynical and her flaying of small
and big town bullshit alike is impeccable. I grew up in a
Northwestern version of the town in the film and for the
most part Cody paints a realistic portrait of the life and
times of suburban kids post-high school. So why I can’t I
call it a top-notch, top 10 film? Because it’s only a shell.
I imagine, or hope, that somewhere along the post-production
trail, Jason Reitman saw that his film was quickly
escalating in to the Oscar baiting swell of Up In The
Air, saw a truly striking performance by one of the
great actresses of our time and decided to pare down the
movie to a minuscule 72 minutes that focused almost entirely
on the character of a former high school bitch who sad and
lonely returns to her high school town to try and find love.
Somewhere in the cutting though the film lost a solid ending
and garnered too dark of a final message. The film feels
short and when you can see the holes where the editing knife
sliced in to a film, the director is too exposed. Though I
hope this was some sort of backlash from the two hour emo-adventure
of Up In The Air, I imagine it’s just a film that was
sliced too close to the quick.
The Lesson:
American attention spans are ruining film. Seriously.
- Noah Sanders
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