Click here for the review of Young Adult

SPOILERS must be tagged with the "SPOILER" tag!

JB, there's been a lot of Oscar talk surrounding Charlize Theron. Do you think it's deserved?

That's disappointing to hear seeing as Reitman's films have earned some Oscar nods. Anyone think his films have actually been declining in quality? I kind of do.

I still can't fathom how Diablo Cody won an Oscar for her "Juno" screenplay.

I am sure glad I read James' review before I looked at the trailer because that trailer was about as confusing as any I have ever seen for a movie. It made no sense to me.
This is coming from someone who had never heard about this movie.

For me, they have been up and down. I thought THANK YOU FOR SMOKING was overrated. I liked JUNO and UP IN THE AIR a lot. I'm not that enthused about YOUNG ADULT. My understanding is that this was a fill-in, though. He was planning something that got pushed back, so he inserted this into his schedule. Only took about a month to film.

No. These days, it seems that when anyone does a halfway competent job of acting, they get Oscar buzz. That's what irritates me about Brad Pitt and MONEYBALL. Save the plaudits for something really amazing.

Yeah, for the most part it dosen't take that much effort to play an unlikeable character. I see the comparisons between her character and Diaz's from Bad Teacher, but Elizabeth is different in that she's not outright mean most of the time, she's just lazy and dosen't care much about her job, but she does show a few moments of niceness, whereas Theron's character sounds like she's just mean for the sake of being mean.

I actually still think this film has the potential to be good or great. I read AO Scott's review and the blurb for Ebert's review; both of them really liked "Young Adult." In fact, this film has a 78% positive rating on rotten tomatoes. The critics seem to admire the filmmakers' unsympathetic portrait of the protagonist. While I won't be checking this out in theaters, I'm gonna look out for it on Blu-ray.

These days I feel like some actors are getting nominations simply because their presence on an awards show would equal ratings. Remember when Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie got Golden Globe nominations for "The Tourist"? A lot of people were kind of dumbfounded on how those two got nominated for such a panned film when their performances weren't that good. But yet having big stars like them around means more people will watch so they got nominated anyway.

Well it's not like the Golden Globes are held in very high esteem anyways, you always see shows like The Simpsons making fun of how easy it is to win one. When you consider that Arnold Schwarzenegger of all people was nominated for a Globe, it's not at all surprising that Depp and Jolie would be nominated for average performances in an average film.

Well usually people hold the Golden Globes in higher esteem compared to the Oscars, but oh well. I never knew Arnold was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Arnie for Golden Globes? What film?

I'm guessing "Terminator 2".

It was "Junior" of all films, I REALLY wish I was joking! I can't believe he was nominated for what has to be his all-time WORST film, not to mention his worst performance. He was also nominated for Stay Hungry, which I haven't seen.

He won for Stay Hungry for Best Acting Debut, Male....or at least Best Acting Debut, something something.

Of course that's a lie since they've neglected his masterpiece of a debut film Hercules in New York.

My viewpoint differs slightly. I liked Thank You For Smoking (even if the humor could have been more biting) and Up In The Air a lot and found Juno overrated. Young Adult I have yet to see. Reitman's a good director overall. But he seems to be at his best with movies where he wrote the script himself.



Stay Hungry was actually a pretty good film. Arnold wasn't the star of that one, he was a supporting player. Junior was definitely one of his weaker films (Collateral Damage was worse) and definitely his worst comedy. Even Jingle All The Way was better. Junior came out in the era when his hold as king of the box office had slipped he'd descended into acting in comedies with no laughs and thrillers with no thrills. Junior came out the same year True Lies did and True Lies was an effective summation of what was good about Arnie as both action star and comedian. That was his peak. After that there was nowhere to go but down.

I agree with what you said about "True Lies". This movie played to Arnold's strengths and it certainly didn't hurt to work with James Cameron again. I think this should have been Arnold's last action film. It would have made a good film to retire on from action movies. He's done more action films since "True Lies", but it just hasn't been the same. Plus, he's only getting older and far from his physical peak.

I somehow missed this review until now, but having just gotten back from seeing YA I'm afraid I have to agree with it. I'm a huge fan of everyone involved in the film, Cody notwithstanding (though I honestly thought she deserved the Oscar for Juno), but it just didn't do anything for me. The story's complete predictability and lack of any kind of redemption for Theron's character really does make the film seem like a straight-up revenge fantasy; I'm sure it was satisfying for Cody to write, but it doesn't really make for compelling film-making.

You definitely need to look at this film more as a character study than an actual conventional story. And I suppose how much you like it then depends on how much you relate to Mavis. As a creative/non-conformist/unlucky-in-love person myself, I definitely identified with her inability to find happiness in the mundaneness of everyday life, with which most people seem perfectly content. How could one be so content to live nearly the exact same life as nearly everybody else? There's gotta be more out there. That said, this is nonetheless probably Jason Reitman's least impressive film to date.