Delusions to the rescue. Analyzing Jason Reitman's Young Adult.

"She was consumed by 3 simple things:

drink, despair, loneliness; and 2 more:

youth and beauty"

— Charles Bukowski (The People Look Like Flowers at Last) 

Jason Reitman's Young Adult tells a story of Mavis Gary, a woman approaching 40 and a former prom queen. Mavis never grew up - she was always told how beautiful and amazing she was, which cause her to rely on her looks and never getting a chance to develop strong personality. When she was in high school she was popular and everyone always assumed she will achieve great things. She was dating Buddy Slade, it was a love of her life. In the beginning of the movie Mavis gets a message from Buddy's wife Beth informing her that she and Buddy just had a baby. Mavis is shown pulling her hair out for the first time when she looks at the picture - it's a compulsion, she does it every single time something reminds her of how wrong her life went and when everyone moved on, severed their connections to their teenage years, went on to do new things and started families, Mavis is just standing still, still trapped in her old mentality. She prints the photo of the baby and sits on the balcony looking at it. You can see curious things going through Mavis's face as she looks at it - nostalgia, jealousy and confusion. Mavis shakes the good emotions right off and comes up with a plan - she will go back to Mercury, her old town and win Buddy back. She is convincing herself that Buddy is trapped in his new life and he still loves her.

Young Adult

97/100, (94 min, 2011)
Plot: Soon after her divorce, a fiction writer returns to her home in small-town Minnesota, looking to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend, who is now married with kids.
Director: Jason Reitman
Writer: Diablo Cody
Stars: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson and Patton Oswalt

The Defense of Mavis Gary

"Young Adult" is an amazing movie - although advertised as a comedy, it is profound and moving character study. I enjoy Reitman's films and I like Diablo Cody's writing, however none of their films every hit me that hard and stunned me - in "Young Adult" both the script and Charlize Theron's fearless and flawless performance are just pure gold.

When I read opinions about the movie it struck me how many people call Theron's character monster. The only thing more shallow than some of Mavis's actions in the film is calling her that. We see a deeply hurt, damaged woman, who desperately needs help and worst of all - she didn't realize it. How can anyone can call person like that a monster? I wanted to hate her before seeing the film - we all know these Prom Queen types, who could get any guy they wanted in high school, had best birthday parties etc. I thought how fun it would be to see a movie where a person like that is a complete mess. But it wasn't fun - instead of hating Mavis, I felt sympathy for her.

Up in the Air

(109 min, 2009)
Director: Jason Reitman
Writers: Walter Kirn (novel), Jason Reitman (screenplay)
Stars: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick

The Escapist

And in the end
we lie awake
and we dream
of making our escape
- Coldplay, The Escapist

Ryan Bingham has quite an unusual job. He travels across the country and fires people. He spends most of his life flying from one location to another to „let employee go”. He hates his home, he has no contact with his family. He has no real girlfriend, just occasional ones. Apparently, he doesn't even have friends. Yet he is happy, he smiles, he acts friendly, he keeps it together. Somehow the shallowness and superficial nature of his life doesn't bother him. He has one goal and one goal only to reach 10 million airlines. Why? He has no idea why. This is his only aspiration, his only dream. That magical thing that keeps people going. Even when we don't realize, our passions and our hopes and dreams are the only things keeping us going, when we are as alone as Ryan is.

And suddenly one day Ryan's boss introduces him to young employee of their company - Natalie Keener. Natalie invented the system which allows them to fire people over internet. No need to fly to the location, no need to keep living the way Ryan lives. The conflict is already there.

Ryan is so sure of himself he doesn't even feel threatened. Everything Natalie is and does – clumsy suitcase, boyfriend, complete lack of experience – Ryan is sure she is going to fail because of all of this. He is assigned to show her around his job, to teach her how their business works. In the effect Ryan ends up answering tons of questions about love, marriage, kids and other stuff Natalie dreams about. His utterly realistic point of view, where there is no place for love and family shocks Natalie. Ryan doesn't realize that his mission to reach the impossible number of miles spent in the air is his substitute for normal life.