Blog Response Young Adult (Narrative Film)

Young Adult follows Mavis Gary, an author of teen literature. She lives in Minneapolis (MN) but decides to return to the small town in which she grew up to relive her glory days and get back together with her high school boyfriend, Buddy, after receiving a mass email of a picture of his newborn. From the beginning of the film we get a firsthand look at how self involved and dramatic, bordering on delusional, Mavis is.
After Mavis returns to Mercury (MN) she makes constant passes at her Buddy knowing he’s married and has a family while ignoring the warnings from an unlikely associate she bullied in high school. We realize near the end of the film that the only reason she keeps getting opportunities to reclaim Buddy is not because she’s crafty. The only reason she keeps getting invited to everything is because the people of the town feel bad for her. At a baby naming party Mavis completely comes on to Buddy and he asks her to leave. She gets confused by his rejection because he let it go on for too long. When the rejection and humiliation finally get to her she has an outburst where we find out that she was going to have a baby with Buddy but had a miscarriage. At this point we know that Mavis was planning on spending her life with Buddy but left Mercury after the miscarriage. She became a successful writer and got married. She later got a divorce and it’s now understandable why she reacted the way she did in the beginning of the film when she received the picture of the his newborn in her email.
The saddest part about the film is that it could happen to anyone. Things happen. Miscarriages could happen to anyone is divorce rates are high. You can’t help but feel sorry for her even after her witnessing her negative personality traits. It almost reminded me of the transition from high school to college, and most likely the transition from college to life. Sometimes things change, and people change, and we can’t always expect to leave a place and return and have it be the same. I enjoyed this film because I’m from Minneapolis, MN and it’s interesting to see how your area is portrayed.