Movie · 2011 · Comedy, Drama · 1h 34m · R · English
Curator score: 4.1/10 (157.3K ratings)
Everyone gets old. Not everyone grows up.
Overview
A divorced writer from the Midwest returns to her hometown to reconnect with an old flame, who's now married with a family.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.1/10
IMDb: 6.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.23/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Metacritic: 71
TMDB: 5.8/10
Director
Jason Reitman
Production
Paramount Pictures, Mandate Pictures, Indian Paintbrush, Mr. Mudd, Right of Way Films, Denver & Delilah Productions
Cast
Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser, Collette Wolfe, Jill Eikenberry, Richard Bekins, Mary Beth Hurt, Kate Nowlin, Jenny Dare Paulin, Rebecca Hart, Louisa Krause, Elizabeth Ward Land, Brian McElhaney, Hettienne Park, John Forest, Rightor Doyle, Brady Smith, Tim Young, Erin Darke
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, uncomfortable character study that turns a homecoming comedy into a bleakly funny portrait of arrested development, loneliness, and self-delusion. Charlize Theron’s performance is the engine: funny, cruel, wounded, and hard to look away from.
Best for
Viewers who like messy antiheroes
Fans of bleak, character-driven dramedies
People interested in female-led stories without easy redemption
Audiences who appreciate cringe comedy with emotional bite
Skip if
You want likable characters or a feel-good arc
You prefer broad comedy over awkward, painful humor
You need a tidy ending or clear moral lesson
You dislike stories built around self-sabotage and emotional discomfort
Overview
Young Adult is a nasty little homecoming movie with a bruised heart. Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody strip away the usual nostalgia glow and replace it with embarrassment, resentment, and the kind of social failure that feels almost physical. It’s funny, but the laughter keeps catching in your throat.
Worth noting
Charlize Theron gives Mavis a fearless, unsentimental performance that refuses to soften her into a redemption project. She’s vain, cruel, pathetic, and recognizably human all at once, which is what makes the film sting. Patton Oswalt grounds the movie with a quieter sadness that keeps it from tipping into pure contempt.
Bottom line
What lingers is the film’s refusal to flatter its protagonist or its audience. It understands how adulthood can become a long, humiliating negotiation with the person you thought you’d be. That makes it uncomfortable, but also unusually honest.
Top Letterboxd reviews
melanie (4★) · 1300 likes
this is the Lady Bird for people who hate their hometown
sydney (4★) · 902 likes
idk as someone who has lived their entire life shrinking from conflict, unable to stand up for herself or say no, terrified of other people and with no self confidence, i must grudgingly admit that it is refreshing and empowering to see a woman be such a selfish unapologetic miserable asshole
Emma (3.5★) · 773 likes
I like this because a woman gets to be the asshole.
Jennifer (4.5★) · 624 likes
“It’s really difficult for me to be happy. And then for other people it just seems so simple.”
Fucking brutal.
Aaron Michael (4★) · 544 likes
Yooooo this is a thoughtfully directed, well-acted, female written story that deals with mental illness and just, you know, life in a genuine and earnest way. Why does it have such a middling reputation??? Charlize and Patton knock it out of the park. Definitely an underrated gem from 2011.