Trailer Park: Can The Team Behind "Juno" Find Success With "Young Adult"?

Jason Reitman's latest film looks to bring character and story back to comedy.

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Complex Original

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In 2007, director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody brought heart and soul back to the comedy genre with their award winning film, Juno. After expertly detailing the issue of teenage pregnancy, the duo is now focusing on the subject of lost loves and aging in their latest comedy, Young Adult.

Mavis Gary (played by Charlize Theron) is an author of young-adult literature that returns to her hometown in order to rekindle the relationship she had with her now-married high school boyfriend, played by Patrick Wilson. There is the same understated approach to the characters that Juno had, but Young Adult doesn't seem to share the same snappy dialogue or optimistic tone as Juno.

The trailer highlights the humorously morose lives of these characters, which is backed up beautifully by the drab look of the town itself. It's refreshing to see a trailer for a comedy that doesn't depend on gross-out jokes or Ryan Reynolds to sell audiences; instead, Young Adult looks to offer offbeat humor that comes from the characters themselves, rather than on unbelievable circumstances that happen just for the sake of a cheap laugh.

Theron is obviously the star of this trailer, with Patrick Wilson and Patton Oswalt's characters taking a bit of a backseat. But none of that matters because there is no way you would be able to take your eyes off of Theron anyway. She looks like she completely owns this role as she plays it both incredibly sleazy and bitchy, which perfectly captures the crazy ex-girlfriend vibe that the movie is going for. Every member of the audience knew this type of girl in high school, so it's great to see it pulled off on screen without being over-the-top. 

Young Adult certainly seems like a different type of comedy, but we'll see if that's a good thing when it gets released on December 9.

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