Young Adult (2011)

All Critics (179) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (145) | Rotten (36) | DVD (8)

There is a raw honesty here rare in movies, and it's very funny too - excruciating at times.

January 31, 2012 Full Review

Cath Clarke

Time Out

Top Critic

Young Adult may be the year's most engaging feel-bad movie.

December 16, 2011 Full Review | Comments (8)

Tom Long

Detroit News

Top Critic

There's little about Mavis that makes for feel-good revelry. That's an understatement, perhaps. Yet, Theron's work feels true to Mavis' malaise -- and often, just as sad.

December 16, 2011 Full Review

Lisa Kennedy

Denver Post

Top Critic

As good as Theron and Oswalt are, and they're very good, Young Adult doesn't give them enough room to breathe.

December 16, 2011 Full Review | Comments (3)

Peter Howell

Toronto Star

Top Critic

A low-key, indie-style comedy that plays precariously close to an unfunny sociopathic case study.

December 16, 2011 Full Review | Comments (5)

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

There's enough grit in the film's gears to keep the forward motion from ever getting too smooth.

December 16, 2011 Full Review

Michael O'Sullivan

Washington Post

Top Critic

Jason Reitman and Charlize Theron create a realistic insight into what happens to the popular high school student who can't adjust to the real world in Young Adult.

January 29, 2013 Full Review

Karen Benardello

We Got This Covered

With Juno, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody gifted us a sunny gem where self-aware teens spoke like adults, but with Young Adult they give us a darker piece where an unaware, self-deceptive 'adult' sees the world like a teen.

December 19, 2012 Full Review

Stephen Carty

Flix Capacitor

"Young Adult" is not a terrible film, just one that was not thought out very well.

September 18, 2012 Full Review

Jeff Beck

Examiner.com

Theron crushes the role, channeling her best Mean Girls impression, providing Mavis a riotously self-centered persona.

August 25, 2012 Full Review

Erick Weber

NECN

You're squirming watching this abhorrent behaviour and you're challenged to re-evaluate your golden perception of the past. Young Adult isn't going to be exactly what you expect - enjoy it. It's a nice relief to be surprised.

May 8, 2012 Full Review

Blake Howard

2UE That Movie Show

Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman have still managed to get at a fundamental truth that screenplays traditionally ignore. People don't change. Character "arc" is one of those myths that movies perpetuate.

March 23, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Roger Moore

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

It's so rare that women get to play fully rounded, three dimensional, flawed human beings, that's it's almost kind of unsettling to realise that's what's going on here.

March 22, 2012 Full Review | Comments (3)

Catherine Bray

Film4

While it feels as though it has a promising story idea, it's an undeveloped premise that never goes anywhere. (Blu-ray edition)

March 12, 2012 Full Review | Comments (5)

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

A cautionary tale? A slice of life? A demeaning of big-city shallowness or small-town complacency? Who knows. It's certainly a depressing black comedy.

March 12, 2012 Full Review | Comments (2)

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

People who've already convinced themselves of Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody's genius should appreciate Young Adult's cynical, formulaic pandering, but doubters should stay far, far away.

March 12, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Chuck Bowen

Slant Magazine

Filled with pain disguised as comedy, it presents a real-life Peter Pan complex where letting go of one's youth is complicated and painful.

March 8, 2012 Full Review

Ryan Cracknell

Movie Views

Cody and Reitman were once two of the most promising talents in the filmmaking business, but Young Adult erases any of their past success from memory. I truly hope for a return to form soon because YA is a real downer.

March 8, 2012 Full Review | Comments (3)

Cameron Williams

The Popcorn Junkie

Anthropological rather than aspirational.

March 2, 2012 Full Review

Ed Whitfield

The Ooh Tray

...a narrative treadmill; you get the sense Mavis is still out there somewhere, lonely and lost as when we first met her.

March 1, 2012 Full Review | Comments (8)

Josh Larsen

LarsenOnFilm

Young Adult is much funnier and infinitely more savage than Cody's earlier collaboration with director Jason Reitman, the cute but rather cosy Juno.

February 14, 2012 Full Review

Lisa Mullen

Sight and Sound

This is one of the best contemporary dramas to come along in years.

February 9, 2012 Full Review

Dominic Corry

Flicks.co.nz

• 1. Mavis Gary: Matt, don't you get it. Love conquers all. Have you not seen the graduate or like, I don't know, anything?
  – Submitted by Katie F (9 months ago)
• 1. Mavis Gary: Mother, I'm trying to tell a story here.
  – Submitted by Ezix Q (9 months ago)
• 1. Sandra Freehauf: Take me with you.
  2. Mavis Gary: Excuse me?
  3. Sandra Freehauf: Take me with you. To the Mini Apple.
  4. Mavis Gary: You're good here, Sandra.
  – Submitted by Lucas M (11 months ago)
• 1. Mavis Gary: Sometimes in order to heal a few people have to get hurt.
  – Submitted by Lucas M (11 months ago)
• 1. Mavis Gary: Mary Ellen, you were great tonight. It's so inspiring to see a single mother with so much confidence on stage. Really.
  – Submitted by Lucas M (11 months ago)
• 1. Mavis Gary: Guys like me are born loving women like you.
  – Submitted by Naughtia N (13 months ago)

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