Young Adult

Thankfully Academy Award winner Brook Busey stays away from her claim-to-fame Juno-esque teenspeak to develop these complicated characters through their choices. Charlize Theron uses her natural ability of attractive to skillfully embody this very flawed alcoholic home wrecker. The key relationship is with the high school nerd Paton Oswald, whose growth is also stunted, and the relationship they form is fascinating. Both characters seem to hate themselves, yet each character is completely unwilling to change. It’s a strong character study and a well-made movie, although it reminded me a lot of Bad Teacher, which was better and funnier, IMHO. (Uh-oh! Teenspeak!) On a very positive note, it’s an original screenplay by Busey -- not a spin-off, sequel, prequel, adaptation, historical adaptation, throwback, or any other safe movie-making gimmick. It doesn’t pander to any demographic and there seems to be no cynical effort to cram this movie down our throats, and that is commendable.