3. Mavis Gary - Young Adult (2011)
Here we come to the one female on this list, Charlize Therons Mavis Gary, a YA fiction writer who is depressed and really has few positive traits. After watching this movie, I don't know what the take away from it is. It certainly wasn't an enjoyable ninety minutes of cinematic experience. Mavis is a damaged character, we get that in the first few frames, and since she doesn't change, I'm not sure what the point of the rest of the film was. Perhaps I should credit the filmmakers for having the gumption to frustrate their audience, but we know there are depressed, alcoholic, mean people in the world, so why do we want to endure a film watching this one? I have liked everything else that Jason Reitman has directed and I appreciate Theron as a performer, but I feel like their talents were wasted on this story. The film is generally categorized as a comedy, but that doesnt feel right. Where is the humor? Are we laughing with Mavis or at Mavis? Neither seems likelyI certainly found little to chuckle about. An old writing instructor once told me that the difference between writing for television and writing for movies is that on TV shows the characters never really change, but in motion picture there has to be a change by the end of the film. If you think about that for a moment, its generally quite true. The reason we watched Friends for ten years is because we really got to know those six characters, including their quirks and flaws. And all those same characteristics were still there as they exited the apartment one final time. But in a movie, there is almost always a fundamental shift for someone by the end. (Our next entry is a perfect example of that.) So, with that rule in place, a flick like Young Adult feels even more aggravating because Mavis makes no change. I am all for empowering directors to frustrate audience expectations every once in a while, but there should be a reason for it. In this case I cant figure out the reason.