Young Adult
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 9, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 14, 2011
It's the most unsettling nice surprise of 2011. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 8, 2011
A dark comedy that confirms Diablo Cody as a screenwriter of importance, eliminates the last shred of doubt that Jason Reitman is a major director and gives Charlize Theron her best showcase since "Monster." Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDec 7, 2011
Young Adult bumps along with nasty swerves, middle finger proudly in the air, toward an ending blessedly free of anything warm, fuzzy, or optimistic. Now that's adult entertainment. Read full review
90
MovielineS.T. VanairsdaleDec 12, 2011
Young Adult is the first of Reitman's films from which I haven't felt him choking out a message; ironically, its rawness yields the humanity that he thought he was wringing from "Up in the Air." Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 8, 2011
When it's done right, as it is in Young Adult, there is something absolutely mesmerizing about watching a train wreck unfold on screen. When the wreck in question is a narcissistic beauty played to scheming, sour, downward-spiraling perfection by Charlize Theron, cringing is definitely called for, but so is laughter. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 8, 2011
A cockeyed comic triumph that flashes between bright and dark like a strobe light of the spirit. And Ms. Theron, as Mavis Gary, a self-styled author rather than a mere writer, succeeds sensationally at something much harder than playing ravaged. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 8, 2011
Shorter than a bad blind date and as sour as a vinegar Popsicle, Young Adult shrouds its brilliant, brave and breathtakingly cynical heart in the superficial blandness of commercial comedy. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 4, 2011
Reteaming pop-savvy scribe Diablo Cody with "Juno" director Jason Reitman, Young Adult revels in breaking the rules of safe Hollywood storytelling. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 16, 2011
Clear-eyed, fearless and ferociously funny, Young Adult is mature filmmaking. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 7, 2011
Patton Oswalt is, in a way, the key to the film's success. Theron is flawless at playing a cringe-inducing monster and Wilson touching as a nice guy who hates to offend her, but the audience needs a point of entry, a character we can identify with, and Oswalt's Matt is human, realistic, sardonic and self-deprecating. He speaks truth to Mavis. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreDec 7, 2011
Reitman lets the pop-culture references (oh hi, 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up") accessorize the story rather than guide it, and in its uncompromising treatment of a character who's troubled but also a stone-cold bitch, Young Adult offers compassion for rather than revenge on the "psycho prom queen" who has nothing left in life but a warped mix-tape from an ex who moved on long ago. Read full review
80
EmpireAngie ErrigoJan 30, 2012
Smart, honest, sickeningly funny and supremely well judged in the writing, direction and acting. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 15, 2011
Young Adult is a horror movie disguised as a dark comedy. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 9, 2011
Young Adult may at times be stuck between emotional gears, but that's by design. Like its heroine, the movie refuses to pick up after itself. Read full review
80
SlateDan KoisDec 8, 2011
Young Adult doesn't fully work, but it's still one of the year's most memorable movies. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. HobermanDec 6, 2011
Young Adult might be brushed off as curdled rom-com were it not for two things. The first is the depth of Theron's performance...The second, less predictable aspect is the utter absence of the corny rehabilitation found in "Juno" and Reitman's glib, downsizing dramedy "Up in the Air." Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 16, 2011
In reality, in this age of cookie-cutter entertainment, the movie's success probably is because of Cody's unconventional script. This isn't a silly, disposable, rom-com -- and thank goodness for that. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 15, 2011
A pitch-black comedy steeped in bitterness and regret. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisDec 15, 2011
Diablo Cody wrote Young Adult, and it's an improvement over "Juno," her first script. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanDec 15, 2011
It's funny, in a can't-look-away-from-the-train-wreck way, and it's brutally honest. But it's not pretty. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 14, 2011
A fat streak of melancholy courses throughout Young Adult - who would have guessed the sight of a Kentaco Hut, one of those one-stop conglomerations of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, could be this depressing? Read full review
75
NPRBob MondelloDec 9, 2011
So it makes sense that Young Adult feels at times like a mashup of styles and genres - part curdled rom-com, part psycho-prom-queen flick, with a little "Revenge of the Nerds" thrown in. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickDec 9, 2011
It also boasts a killer breakout performance by comic Patton Oswalt as a former classmate who becomes Theron's unlikely co-dependent and sometimes co-conspirator. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundDec 8, 2011
Pairing again after the mad success of "Juno," Cody and Reitman prove a canny team when it comes to capturing frank yet polished modernity, getting at truths of the here and now even if a certain excess of gloss denies them the full Americana humanism of someone like Alexander Payne. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 8, 2011
In this tale of stunted development, Theron is a comic force of nature, giving her character considerable density and humanity despite her monstrous aspects. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnDec 5, 2011
With self destruction as destiny, Reitman has made the equivalent of a Roland Emmerich disaster movie writ small, an apocalyptic scenario internalized by a single person. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 4, 2011
Their scenes together are the film's best, with Theron and Oswalt, who have very different tempi and temperatures as performers, parrying and thrusting with great expertise. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazineKate ErblandNov 22, 2011
Cody's snappy, spot-on writing and Reitman's clear-eyed direction should suit audiences looking for a black-as-night dramedy with bite. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn LevyDec 15, 2011
"Juno" was accused (wrongly, in my view) of having things both ways: being cute and cynical, edgy and sentimental. Young Adult, despite the fun afforded by Theron and Oswalt, seems content to have things neither. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenDec 15, 2011
One of the freshest and most original movies around right now, though caveat emptor: This may not be enough to make it likable. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 12, 2011
The filmmakers may be just as clueless as Buddy when it comes to Mavis, who resembles nothing so much as a snooty stalker. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 15, 2011
Though marketed as a comedy, this film is too creepy and acerbic to be consistently comic. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 8, 2011
While on sardonic turf, it's scathingly funny. Then it veers from biting wit to pitiful. At one juncture, the story threatens to spin off into "Fatal Attraction" territory. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 8, 2011
Cody would likely acknowledge she's working through her own contradictory feelings toward her protagonist - and that she may have been a draft or two away from shaping those feelings into a terrific black comedy, rather than a pretty interesting one. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 7, 2011
For most of the movie, Cody and Reitman jape at her until, in the last 20 minutes or so, they attempt to turn her into an object of sympathy. It doesn't work and, on balance, neither does Young Adult. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyDec 15, 2011
Plays precariously close to an unfunny sociopathic case study. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedDec 8, 2011
It's a fatiguing, low-key character study that drags along annoyingly and pleads for patience, but stick with it and you'll find the engrossing centerpiece performance by Ms. Theron a captivating reward that is well worth the effort. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissDec 8, 2011
By turns amusing and annoying, Young Adult could be the flip side, plus the sequel, of "Juno." Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDec 8, 2011
Whether the character is supposed to be a stand-in for Cody, who grew up in the western 'burbs of Chicago and has since won an Oscar, is more than I can say, but the movie suffers from the sort of self-pitying fog that can envelop a writer when he dives into his own malaise. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 8, 2011
Humor is notoriously subjective, of course, but I didn't find Young Adult especially funny. It's an intermittently engaging fable of American homecoming that's both intentionally and unintentionally awkward, and flavored from bitter to sour all the way through. Read full review
40
Time OutStephen GarrettDec 6, 2011
Both Reitman and his first-rate cast do their best to add depth. The real tragedy of Young Adult, however, is the story's lack of tragedy. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 27, 2011
The movie spreads bad vibes like a virus. Read full review
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