Young Adult

Title: Young Adult

Director: Jason Reitman
Released: 2011
Starring: Charlie Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt, Elizabeth Reaser

Plot: Mavis Gary (Theron) a former high school “It Girl”, now a divorced ghost writer for the “Waverly Prep” series of young adult books of which she is now currently struggling to finish the last book of the series.  However upon receiving an e-mail containing pictures of her now married high school boyfriend Buddy (Wilson), she see’s it as a sign that they should be together once more and returns to her hometown intent on winning him back.

Review: Since appearing seemingly from nowhere to claim an Oscar with her screenplay for “Juno”, Diablo Cody has been considered by some to be the female Orson Wells, who like Cody exploded onto the movie scene, only to never match the same heights as his early years, something which seems to be happening to Cody from the release of “Juno” follow up “Jennifer’s Body” her first attempt at a horror script  and a film which suffered largely due to it’s questionable casting choices, aswell as the fact that it seemingly couldn’t decide if it was going to be another smart ass comedy like her debut or an actual horror film, especially when it was largely more titillating than terrifying. Still It seemed like Cody had hit her peak with her debut, with only a gradual downward spiral ahead of her aswell as possibly hocking sherry if she is to truly follow the career trajectory of Orson Wells. Now reuniting with director Jason Reitman, Team Juno return to bring another dark humoured look at the suburbs

Jason Reitman has to certainly be the least recognised director currently working today, especially when you consider that his last three films “Thank You For Smoking”, “Juno” and “Up In The Air” have all been so far fantastic and currently it would seem that he is the only director who can truly capture the spirit of Cody’s writing, with this latest film feeling like a return to familiar territory for the duo to the point were this could very much be set in the same world if not the same town as “Juno” and I frequently half expected to see either Juno or Paulie Bleeker show up in the background as a result of this.

Mavis thankfully though is not another smart assed character, as Cody has toned down the quotable nature of her dialogue to instead craft a truly hideous woman driven by her own personal let alone morally questionable quest to reunite with her ex boyfriend. Viewing her high school days with rose tinted nostalgia, she still hangs onto Buddy’s Letterman jacket, while obsessively playing the same song from an old mixtap he gave her. The key thing about here through is that Mavis only cares about Mavis, something especially clear in the fact that she perceives the fact that Buddy is now married, as nothing but a minor inconvenience and a prison in which he is secretly asking to rescued from, by mailing her pictures of his new born daughter. Still this desire to hook up with Buddy again, it would seem less based on a “Fatal Attraction” esc obsession and ultimately more about trying to reconnect with her high school glory days, especially with her life currently having ground to a disappointing halt and a daily spiral of drinking and writers block.

However upon returning to her hometown she is more than a little disappointed, to find that her legacy was perhaps not as memorable as she had first thought, while also  finding an unwitting accomplice in one of her former classmates “Hate Crime” Matt (Oswalt), whom was left walking with a crutch following a high school beating by jocks who had wrongly accused him of being gay. Matt however it would seem is the one person not afraid of telling Mavis the truth, even if she still ignores him and does what she wants’ anyway, together they slowly form an unusual bond.
Charlie Theron is on great form here as Mavis, something which only makes for a suitable reminder as to how she won her Oscar for “Monster”, especially when this is the first film since that win to show that Theron is more than a pretty face and capable of actually pulling off a great performance with the right director, which she would seemingly have with Reitman, for  as Mavis she is highly believable, a former prom queen for whom the harsh realities of real life have finally caught up, especially when she is embodiment of so many similar minded girls that I went to school with, many of which seemingly under the same delusions as Mavis and while Mavis might not perhaps be at the same delusional levels as seen in “Fatal Attraction”, she still does come pretty close, as she obsessively phones Buddy to arrange catch up’s, while working under the false pretence of being in town for a property developer conference. Despite this Buddy is shown to be frequently naïve to Mavis’s true intentions, even when she is flirtly knocking back shots with him at a gig being held by the band for whom Buddy’s wife Beth (Reaser) drums for.

The biggest revelation here though is the performance by Oswalt, which not only taps into his natural comedy talent, but also helps him showcase a much more serious side to his acting ability, as a man who refuses to quit, even when he was left with a more permanent reminder of high school than most bullying targets, yet whom is also yet to escape his small town roots in what is a refreshing change from the usual bulled kid come good plotline we’ve come to expect, for he was a loser in school and even now as a grown up little seems to have changed. Still after seemingly a lifetime playing the comedic punch line, it’s great to see Oswalt finally getting to tackle a more challenging role, let alone having a great on screen chemistry with Theron as especially highlighted in their scenes together, which are by far the strongest.

While it might not be the most developed of plot lines, it is still much a more familiar territory for Cody as a writer, even if she has now flipped the perspective to an older character who can’t let go of her teenage years, especially with Cody seemingly being so keen to write from a prospective of youth, rather than impending middle age. What is also interesting is the vain of dark humour which she has worked into the screenplay, a departure from the pop culture and one liner driven humour of both “Juno” and “Jennifer’s Body”. However such darkly tinged humour is always a tricky act to pull off and while perhaps not as dark as the likes of Todd “Welcome to the Dollhouse” Solondz, it’s still a fine line that the film walks, with Mavis and her actions frequently providing selfish let alone morally questionable, it certainly makes her a hard character to like and no doubt the reason that this film has split audience down the middle, while some random guy at the screening I was at actually threw his arms up halfway through and walk out, while muttering “fuck this shit” to himself, only furthered to highlight this point, with Cody’s seeming refusal to provide any form of comeuppance outside of turning the events of the film into some kind of weird life lesson, no doubt only adding further fuel to the fire.

“Young Adult” might not be the return Oscar winning form for Cody that her fan base might have hoped for, but it is certainly a huge step up from “Jennifer’s body”, while also continuing a great run of films for Reitman, which doesn’t seem to be stopping just yet, even if this isn’t one of his strongest to date, it still bare all the character driven hallmarks which we have come to expect from his work, which might further explain the sudden leap in quality of storytelling on offer here, but still it is far from the least enjoyable cinema going experience this year, even if half the audience leaving was a little distracting, it is still a quirky and morally ambiguous film, which thankfully refuses to give into traditional film conventions and only comes off the better for it.

Men, Women and Children

Title:  Men, Women and Children

Director:  Jason Reitman
Released:  2014
Starring: Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, Adam Sandler, Ansel Elgot, Kaitlyn Dever, Emma Thompson, J.K Simmons, Jason Douglas, Shane Lynch, Dennis Haysbert, Phil LaMarr, Olivia Crocicchia, Elena Kampouris, Travis Tope, Tina Parker, Will Peltz, Kurt Krakowian

Plot: A group of High School Teenagers and their parents attempt to deal with their issues, with the film taking the slant of how they all choose to use the internet and technology to chase their goals and deal with their issues.

 

Review: After riding high for so long since he made his directorial debut with the sadly now underappreciated “Thank you for Smoking” aswell as the trilogy of films he made with Diablo Cody which lead to the pair affectionately calling themselves “Team Juno”. However despite the success he’s had as a director Reitman remains a director who few people would be able to name a film he directed let alone name him in their top 5 list, which is something of a shame considering how he has constantly produced entertaining and Whitty social satires and here attempts to do the same again, only to stumble at the first fence by choosing to make the internet the focus of this latest film.

The problem with choosing to make a film based around technology is that its development moves so fast that by the time the films released its already out of date. At the same time unless you’re making a film dripping in techno babble and flair you risk the audience thinking that you’re in some way talking down to them, which seems to be the main bug bare for those folks who don’t like this movie, feeling it take the luddite approach to how it views the internet and its characters use of it. That being said if you can just get your head around what feels like quite a dated approach to the internet, much like you have to get around characters not knowing how to use the internet in “Perfect Blue” there is actually a lot to enjoy here.

Opening on Don played here by Adam Sandler giving us one of his rare straight performances, as he uses his son’s computer to search for porn, while Emma Thompson’s gives her opening narration while her well-spoken British accent only adds a unintentional comedic edge to the scene much like many of the scenes in which her sporadically used narration appears throughout the film. Don’s porn use we soon discover is part of his attempts to deal with the issues in his marriage to Helen (DeWitt). The pair soon choosing to find their own solutions with Helen opting to use “Ashley Madison” while Don finds satisfaction through escort services. At the same time their son Chris (Tope) finds himself no longer able to get aroused without the extreme porn he’s long since graduated onto as the result of his long term obsession with internet porn. Elsewhere Hannah (Crocicchia) is desperate to be famous, while her mother Joan (Greer) lives her own failed dreams as an actress by now channeling through her daughter, who she takes risqué pictures off for her daughters website unaware of how the pictures are being viewed.

While these main stories are all pretty standard, with the film suprisingly not opting for the same porn shaming angle that “Don Jon” randomly threw at its audience, this is still not a film without a misguided opinion thrown into the mix as here the paranoia aspect of internet usage is represented by Brandy’s (Dever) over-protective mother Patricia (Garner) who remotely monitors her daughters phone and internet usage, even deleting messages from her obsessed gamer boyfriend Tim (Elgot). Tim of course has his own issues like everyone else in the film as he uses an MMORPG to escape the reality of having to deal with the fallout of his parents’ divorce, which lead his to quit as the school star football player and now leaves him the constant target of his former team mates.

As I mentioned already this is a film which needs you to ignore how some of the information is presented and instead view it as more of a connecting plot device, especially when the enjoyment comes from the interactions these characters have and how each other and how their individual stories unfold. At the same time it’s a vein of natural humour which runs throughout with Reitman forgoing his usual Whitty dialogue and instead relies on the charm and performances of his cast to keep the audience’s attention. That being said we do get several darkly comedic moments such as Chris attempting to cure his impotence issues by attempting to have sex with a lubed up football.

The stories themselves are all interesting and while each one focuses on a different aspect of the internet, you never get the feeling that Reitman is trying to make any kind of major statement on the dangers of the internet or how we’ve all become slaves to it now that it has worked its way into never every aspect of our day to day lives.  I guess the closest film that I could compare this to would unfortunately be “Crash” only atleast this one does suffer from the same smugness and attempt to pull some kind of surprise revelations like the “We’ll All Racists” revelation that “Crash” tried to pull off. Instead this is a film which wears its messages in plain view and leaves it for the audience themselves to decide on where they stand on the characters actions than trying to drive home any kind of opinion we are supposed to have about any of them.

True this is far from a perfect movie while some moments such as the overly melodramatic suicide attempt by one character, while Garner’s overbearing Patricia at times come off as more of a cartoon villain than a concern parent, especially when she goes into her rant about the danger of online gaming in particular what an avatar is supposed to represent.

While this is far from Reitman’s best film to date, it is equally not as bad as it has unfairly been made out to be, though for newcomers I would recommend starting with one of his earlier films than this one.

Up In The Air

Title: Up In The Air

Director: Jason Reitman

Released: 2009

Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Amy Morton, J.K. Simmons, Sam Elliot, Danny McBride, Zach Galifianakis

Plot: Ryan Bingham (Clooney) makes his living traveling around the United States firing people when their employers are unwilling to do it themselves. It’s  life he is content living until his company threaten to take it away with the introduction of videoconferencing, an idea he is quick to oppose leading to him taking new hire and the instigator of this new process Natalie (Kendrick) out with him in the field.

 

Review: Director Reitman first burst onto the scene with “Thank You For Smoking” a film which followed a lobbyist for Tobacco actively trying to encourage more people to smoke and here again he gives another character with an usual job that they actually enjoy doing. So is the case with Ryan, who enjoys his job so much that he sees it as a burden to have to go home on those few days every year when he hasn’t got an assignment.

A creature of habit, Ryan has lived this life for so long he now has his routine down to almost a science, even crafting his personal philosophies into motivational speeches he gives at conferences under the heading of “What’s In Your Backpack?”, all while working towards his target of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles with American Airlines, a goal which he is set to be only the seventh person to achieve. Of course he’s none too pleased to have this work cocoon being threatened by what Natalie is trying to put in place, while his stubbornness to change sees him embarking on a mission to prove her wrong as the pair embarks on their highly unique road trip.

While Ryan might seem like a solitary character, especially with his sparsely decorated apartment, which he seems to have set out to make seem like any of the many hotel rooms he stays in, judging by the stolen hotel towels and fridge full of mini bar spirit bottles. However he has a causal relationship with Alex (Farmiga) a seeming kindred spirit and fellow frequent flyers, with the two hooking up whenever their paths cross. But while it might not be a traditional lifestyle it is one that Ryan is happy living. Clooney really embraces this character, especially in how he handles his day to day work which is not so much with the cold and calculating nature you’d expect him to approach this task with, but rather he relies on a tried and tested quotes, while seemingly knowing how to handle any reaction the people he’s firing.

As with “Thank you For Smoking” the journey the film takes us on is once again one were we have a character of fixed motivation, who slowly comes to realise that his world view might not be as true as they thought. So is the case for Ryan as his relationship with Alex grows closer than its original casual roots, while his sisters impending wedding for which he has to take pictures of the happy couple’s cut out next to tourist spots only further sees him questioning if he is missing something.

A film truly carried by Clooney’s Cary Grant esc charms, especially with his way with dialogue which is only emphasised by the narration he provides and which frequently provides the best insight into his character, especially when he is so often on the defensive to those around him. At the same time he gets equally strong support from both Farmiga and Kendrick who while both playing feisty ladies each bring their own approach to playing this sort of character, especially with Farmiga who effortless manages to switch between aggressiveness and femininity, making her the perfect match for Ryan especially when their lifestyles mirror each other, as highlighted during their initial meeting which soon descends into a game of perk card one upmanship. Their relationship frequently providing a source of fascination as they work around their situation, rerouting appointments to create connecting cities and sending flirty texts when apart and while it might have started casual they soon find things unintentionally getting closer.

Equally fascinating are the segments involving people being fired which not only features a standout appearance by J.K. Simmons, while  Reitman also works in interviews with real people who responded to an advert he placed looking for people to appear in a documentary about job loss in an attempt to avoid actors responding. Each of these interviews also saw the participant being fired on camera, while being asked to respond either how they responded originally or how they wished they had responded to the situation. Of these interviews twenty two would be used in the film, which certainly adds a level of realism to the situation, with some of the responses being truly heart breaking, making you wonder how Ryan actually manages to do this job.

A film which manages to walk the tightrope between humour and real emotion perfectly, even if the journey by the end does have the feeling that we have spent going in a circle. Still the film is funny and smart enough to make the journey an enjoyable one, while finally providing a much needed companion piece to "Thank You For Smoking".