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Young Adult (15)

Comedy, Drama

Soon after her divorce, a fiction writer returns to her home in small-town Minnesota, looking to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend, who is now happily married and has a newborn daughter.


The critical consensus

Young Adult ends up feeling purposeless and underdeveloped, finally going off the rails in its climactic scenes.

***(*)(*)Philip Concannon, The Skinny, 23/01/2012

Fewer fizzy one-liners, more appalled silences [than in Juno].

***(*)(*)Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 29/01/2012

Smart, honest, sickeningly funny and supremely well judged in the writing, direction and acting.

****(*)Angie Errigo, Empire Online, 30/01/2012

Theron gives a fearless performance in a dark comedy of no manners that’s as acerbic and mordant as Juno was warm and embracing. Jason was the Reitman for the job...

****(*)Neil Smith, Total Film, 30/01/2012

Directed by Jason Reitman, this is original, bracing and darkly comic with a strong performance from Theron but it’s not as funny or psychologically probing as it should be and there’s no escaping the fact Mavis is pretty grim company.

***(*)(*)Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express, 01/02/2012

Young Adult, though, is not a normal film and its narrative twists are breathtaking, not only for how audacious they are, but also because they manage – with the aid of brilliant performances all round – to extend sympathy to a character that by the judgmental standards of most mainstream and arthouse movies is irredeemable.

****(*)Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 02/02/2012

Young Adult’s consistently jarring tone, powered by Cody’s crackling self-aware dialogue, further confirms Reitman’s instinct for original approaches to storytelling.

****(*)Paul Gallagher, The List, 02/02/2012

Likable but odd--seriously odd.

***(*)(*)Nigel Andrews, Financial Times, 02/02/2012

She is one of the least sympathetic heroines imaginable, and one of the funniest.

****(*)Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 02/02/2012

A brilliant first hour, and then a hopeless fizzle.

***(*)(*)Anthony Quinn, The Independent, 03/02/2012

Cody has written her own modern fairy tale, one with a twist in that it's about a bad girl who wants life to be good but she can't seem to quite crack the code. It's all horribly, wonderfully complicated, with Mavis the kind of character who is as fascinating as she is maddening. What a coup for Theron.

****(*)Alison Rowat, The Herald, 02/02/2012

Satire that's too mean to be funny.

**(*)(*)(*)Chris Tookey, Daily Mail, 03/02/2012

Squirmingly funny stuff.

David Edwards, Daily Record, 03/02/2012

It’s a hugely satisfying case of right actress, right role, and the dividends are only compounded by the presence of the right director.

****(*)Robbie Collin, The Telegraph, 03/02/2012

Daring and different but just way too dark.

Jonanthan Crocker, Little White Lies, 03/02/2012

Jason Reitman directs Young Adult briskly and sparely, bringing it in at a crisp 90 minutes – the most uncomfortable 90 minutes that American comedy has provided in a while.

Jonathan Romney, The Independent on Sunday, 05/02/2012

At first it's funny and superior as Mavis patronises her despised Hicksville roots and prepares herself for conquest. It modulates into funny and embarrassing, before it becomes unadulterated embarrassment verging on the deeply sad and even tragic. Theron is excellent and heartbreaking.

Philip French, The Observer, 05/02/2012


Features about Young Adult (15)

Jason Reitman: 'Growing up sucks, doesn't it?'

Catherine Shoard, The Guardian, 19/01/2012

If you love something let it go: our film critic on 1990s nostalgia

Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 07/02/2012

Young Adult (15)

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

Dominion, Edinburgh from Friday March 9, 2012, until Thursday March 15, 2012. More info: http://www.dominioncinemas.net

Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday March 16, 2012, until Sunday March 18, 2012. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com

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