Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Greenbriar Accidently Trips Over a Recent One


Young Adult (2011) Better Left For Younger Adults

I had to look at IMDB to see if this was a comedy, and that was after I watched it. They say comedy/drama. Others call Young Adult "edgy." That to me means unpleasant things happen throughout, which they surely do here. Why did I step away from Hoot Gibson and Laurel-Hardy for this? Guess it was curiosity. I'm always intrigued by characters traveling back to roots for renewal of old love or conflict. This trip for Cherize Theron gets ugly (did you ever think her name would surface at GPS?). There's insight into skulls of writers whenever old school themes are addressed in movies, circumstance of scribes (how they must have suffered in high school) assuring unsympathetic treatment of "jocks" and homecoming queens who shunned them. Young Adult goes this better with a wisest character who was beaten and disfigured by said jocks, is now largely impotent and gets about on a leg brace (part of the "edge," or maybe the "drama" IMDB refers to). It's clear early on that's he's the one who will bag Cherize Theron, an outcome as believable as a Harryhausen pterodactyl flying through the window. I suspect Hollywood's writing pool has many a score to settle with long-past Most Populars. Did any head cheerleader ever become a successful scenarist? If so, she needs to pen something where Senior Superlatives represent other than darkest cruelty. Young Adult fascinates for its cringe worthiness. Scenes of utmost embarrassment and humiliation are lovingly prolonged. You just want to shake up creatives behind this and say, Get Over It!

3 Comments:

Blogger Dave K said...

Got a big kick out of your comments on YOUNG ADULT, the harbinger of a squirmy sub-genre of contemporary film - movies providing an unblinking examination of thoroughly unlikeable and thoroughly self-destructive heroes/heroines. Two big Oscar contenders this year are BLUE JASMIN and INSIDE LLEWIN DAVIS, both stories about major jerks who alienate and infuriate everyone they meet and yet still manage against enormous competition to be their own worst enemies.

All of these films hinge on their central performances, actors working up-hill to make us care about off-putting clods who refuse to get wise to themselves. On those terms I think these three succeed, at least for me. I actually liked all of them a lot, although YOUNG ADULT isn't nearly as well crafted as the other two (really major script problems). Setting critics aside, I've talked to several friends who enjoyed JASMIN and DAVIS a great deal (one buddy laughed after seeing DAVIS and said "It's kind of a Dick Flick isn't it?") Have not yet met anyone who liked YOUNG ADULT as much as I did.

Now, I'll admit these are queasy sit-throughs. And I'm not in a big hurry to re-visit these things right after I see them once. But I found them all entertaining, even fun, in a challenging wince-inducing sort of way.

10:27 AM  
Blogger Kevin K. said...

They should do what I do -- ignore all invites to class reunions, invest a few bucks in therapy and enjoy your life as it is now. No one in their right mind revisits the scene of the crime.

2:40 PM  
Blogger David Simmons said...

Real-life troll Sean Penn gets Cherize, so I suspect anything is possible.

5:48 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024
  • April 2024
  • May 2024
  • June 2024
  • July 2024
  • August 2024
  • September 2024
  • October 2024
  • November 2024