Sour Times

Mavis Gray - a KFC eating, delusional, bonkers mad badass 

Young Adult (YA) is the "feel bad movie of the year" and its lead character, Mavis Gray (Charlize Theron) is as scary, nasty, terrifying and black-hearted as Hannibal Lector.

While it's not a film for everyone, I loved YA for its originality and dour, sour tone. It's compelling and funny (though the humour comes from very dark places), and will stay in your head.

On the surface, the story retreads a familiar 'big city gal returns to small town roots to reconnect and learn life lessons' theme. This does happen, but along the way, Mavis' true love quest, or journey, travels down a bumpy, rough, gravel road.

Mavis, a mildly successful ghost writer of young adult books lives a self-absorbed, semi-detached life in "Mini Apple" (Minneapolis) where her days are spent writing, looking after her dog and going on dire dates.

When her old true love, Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson) invites her to a party to celebrate the birth of his new child - she accepts, though she has a hidden agenda. Her return home is motivated by a deluded desire to win Buddy back.

Full of big city swagger and attitude she wants to to relive her prom queen glory days. But everyone from her golden past has moved on, or moved out, and her only companion is Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt).

As the high school loser, he was invisible to Mavis during her teen heyday. He was also tortured by school bullies and left partially crippled after a vicious beating from them. Though it's not revealed how, it seems Mavis was partially responsible for this.

But that was then. 20 years later, Matt is now the only person Mavis can connect and confide with and together, the "damaged goods" pair uncover many uncomfortable and inconvenient truths about their respective lives.

The outcomes are raw, unflinching and brutally honest in parts and that's the film's biggest strength. It also features a brilliant opening titles sequence that will appeal to fans of the Scottish band, Teenage Fanclub and mix tape aficionados. I loved YA and hope you will to.

IDMB link