Written by James M. Tate / 12/19/2011 / No comments / charlize theron , dark comedy , tens
YOUNG ADULT
title: YOUNG ADULT
year: 2011
cast: Charlize Theron
rating: *1/2
A selfish, beautiful, irate, desperate, greedy, cunning woman returns to her small town to snare her high school sweetheart Buddy Slade, who’s proudly married with a newborn baby. Charlize Theron is Mavis Gary, the hardened, boozing author of a young adult series with just enough bitterness to make for a fun anti-heroine. But when she meets a former schoolmate at a bar… an overweight geek who was beaten and crippled for being homosexual even though he wasn’t… the movie hits a wall way too soon. Although Patton Oswalt plays tubby underdog Matt Freehauf with sincerity, his character, in constantly warning Mavis about her plan to break up Buddy’s family, and then their comfortable drinking kinship thereafter, deletes any spontaneous edge she’d have otherwise. The intriguing plotline becomes a simplistic character-study of two polar opposites complaining about their lives – and the film goes nowhere. Even when Mavis makes her moves on Buddy Slade, who, played by Patrick Wilson, looks good but hardly has a pulse, it never seems she has anything to really gain or lose, nor is there a substantial motivation for her actions. Then the very ending, as dark comedy turns to uncomfortable melodrama when Mavis confronts – and is confronted by – Buddy's wife and her friends during an outdoor party, the film fizzles into nowhere: leading to one of the grossest sex scenes in cinematic history... followed by an early morning conversation that could have succeeded in a darkly humorous epilogue if only director Jason Reitman, or writer Diablo Cody, knew what kind of movie they were making in the first place.
year: 2011
cast: Charlize Theron
rating: *1/2
A selfish, beautiful, irate, desperate, greedy, cunning woman returns to her small town to snare her high school sweetheart Buddy Slade, who’s proudly married with a newborn baby. Charlize Theron is Mavis Gary, the hardened, boozing author of a young adult series with just enough bitterness to make for a fun anti-heroine. But when she meets a former schoolmate at a bar… an overweight geek who was beaten and crippled for being homosexual even though he wasn’t… the movie hits a wall way too soon. Although Patton Oswalt plays tubby underdog Matt Freehauf with sincerity, his character, in constantly warning Mavis about her plan to break up Buddy’s family, and then their comfortable drinking kinship thereafter, deletes any spontaneous edge she’d have otherwise. The intriguing plotline becomes a simplistic character-study of two polar opposites complaining about their lives – and the film goes nowhere. Even when Mavis makes her moves on Buddy Slade, who, played by Patrick Wilson, looks good but hardly has a pulse, it never seems she has anything to really gain or lose, nor is there a substantial motivation for her actions. Then the very ending, as dark comedy turns to uncomfortable melodrama when Mavis confronts – and is confronted by – Buddy's wife and her friends during an outdoor party, the film fizzles into nowhere: leading to one of the grossest sex scenes in cinematic history... followed by an early morning conversation that could have succeeded in a darkly humorous epilogue if only director Jason Reitman, or writer Diablo Cody, knew what kind of movie they were making in the first place.
Labels:
charlize theron,
dark comedy,
tens
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
All Time Popular
-
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
-
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
-
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
-
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
-
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
-
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
-
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
-
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
-
CADDDYSHACK is best known for the iconic leading actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray, but originally the ...
-
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
Featured Post
NAKEDLY INGITING THE ANIMATED CULT CLASSIC 'HEAVY METAL'
Title: HEAVY METAL Year: 1981 Rating: **** The best two stories from HEAVY METAL... producer Ivan Reitman's animated/cartoon anthology w...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.