Young Adult
Charlize Theron gets a nice chance to play one of the more irredeemably awful characters to come along in years. In this funny and nasty movie from the team that brought you Juno (director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody), Theron plays Mavis, a young adult fiction writer who gets it in her head to return to her hometown and go after her now married-with-child ex-boyfriend (Patrick Wilson). The film is an exercise in just how uncomfortable situations can get, and it benefits from an all-in performance from Theron that rocks the house. Patton Oswalt is remarkable as Matt, a former classmate of Mavis who was legendarily beaten up at their school. Oswalt has some major chops, as do many of the participants in this movie. This is one of those films that some might find a little too close to home to enjoy. I couldn’t get enough of it.