Visual Parallels: Mulholland Dr. + Young Adult

Mulholland Dr. and Young Adult. Both focused on female heroines who are fighting with severe depression, jealousy and the feeling of being a failure. They both conjure an image that is not real - for Diane it's a dream where she is innocent, she has a chance at big career and where the woman she loves is in love with her. The naivety of the illusion is reflected in film's first images when we see Diane, smiling and hopeful, ready for her big dream to begin.. For Mavis it's living in her memories, repeating herself over and over again, though the world she lives in moved on. She looks at the picture from her wedding day - different kind of dream from the one she relives now, the scenario from high school, but another shattered dream nonetheless.

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.