‘Young Adult’ film dark, ‘uncomfortably awkward’

The new film "Young Adult" directed by Jason Reitman ("Up in the Air," "Thank You For Smoking") and written by Diablo Cody is much different than their first collaboration, 2007's "Juno." While "Juno" was a quirky, feel-good movie full of off-beat hipster dialogue, "Young Adult" is dark, cynical and sometimes uncomfortable to watch.

Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) is a recently-divorced writer of teenage fiction novels in her mid-thirties living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She spends her days writing a series of books about high school students, while reminiscing about her teenage years. She is the epitome of the popular girl in high school who everybody hated — fake, petty and filled with delusions of superiority. She thrives on her "fame" as a successful author, even though she is forced to write under a pseudonym and the series that she writes is being canceled.

After Mavis receives an email from her high school boyfriend Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson) announcing the birth of his baby daughter, she takes a trip back to her hometown in Minnesota in an attempt to seduce him away from his wife and child. While she is there, she reconnects with her old high school classmate Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt) who has his own reasons for dwelling on the past.

Theron is fantastic as a character who is unlikeable and self-destructive but also feels believable. She plays a character who peaked in high school and has spent the rest of her life trying to gain the happiness and popularity that came so easily to her in the past. She pities the small-town citizens that she left behind, while also showing obvious jealousy that they are able to find happiness in the place she despises. The stories that she writes for a living are fantasies of a perfect romantic teenage life that she never wants to end. She is both a sad and frustrating character, learning nothing from her mistakes and suffering because of it.

Oswalt is the big surprise in this film. Famous primarily for his stand-up comedy and for voicing Remy the rat in the 2007 Pixar film "Ratatouille," he delivers a sad and believable performance as a man who has spent his life dwelling on an act of high school bullying which left him partially crippled for the rest of his life. He leans on a crutch, both literally and figuratively, using his disability and the cruelty of his classmates as an excuse not to succeed. He and Mavis connect by their mutual hatred of their town and a love for binge drinking in dive bars.

Mavis' constant disregard for the marriage that she is attempting to destroy and the feelings of her old friends and family is both darkly comedic and uncomfortably awkward. She assumes that Buddy has been waiting for her all this time and has only settled down because she went away. The awkwardness will have you laughing one second and then squirming in your seat the next.

Diablo Cody won the best screenwriting Oscar in 2007 for her "Juno" script and immediately started receiving backlash due to her over-written dialogue and constant quirky catchphrases. "Young Adult's" script is much more subdued, and it is a better film because of it. There is a lot of silence in this film as we watch Mavis sit in her apartment watching crappy reality shows and chugging Diet Coke. Cody didn't feel the need to fill every scene with constant snarky dialogue. The conversations in the film feel believable and honest. Clearly Cody has learned a lot in the past few years.

"Young Adult" is not a film for everyone. The main character is intentionally unlikeable, and there's a chance that she might get on some people's nerves. Everyone knew somebody like Mavis Gary in high school, and if you didn't, it was probably you.