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19. Drifters/Love is the Devil - Dirty Beaches
18. Settle - Disclosure
17. The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas - Courtney Barnett
16. Slow Focus - Fuck Buttons
15. &&&&& - Arca
14. Days Are Gone - HAIM
13. Hanging Gardens - Classixx
12. Dynamics - Holy Ghost!
11. Anxiety - Autre Ne Veut
10. Immunity - Jon Hopkins
9. Cupid Deluxe - Blood Orange
8. The Bones of What You Believe - CHVRCHES
7. mbv - My Bloody Valentine
6. R Plus Seven - Oneohtrix Point Never
There are few movies I defend as frequently or as fervently as Jason Reitman's Young Adult.
For most viewers this movie is the height of misanthropy--nasty, mocking, with no real change and no real point.
I agree, it's a nasty, nasty film. But its nastiness serves humanist ends.
I believe in film as an art of empathy; a great film exercises our capacity for empathy, as one would exercise a muscle to increase its strength.
If so, then Mavis Gary, the queen of unlikeable protagonists, is an empathetic viewer's Iron Cross--a character who does everything in her power to warrant our disdain.
Here's the thing--in all her monstrosity, Mavis tells me things about myself I wasn't comfortable acknowledging. Every time I watch Young Adult, I'm terrified by how much I relate to this sociopath.
Every fall I turn a year older and I start looking to Christmas, when I return to Boston to see my friends and family. I want to show them how successful I am (I'm not), how content I am (I'm not). I want to show them how daring I am for moving to Hollywood. I want the girls who rejected me in high school to be crippled with regret. I want to come back a hometown hero.
They can never know that LA is the loneliest city, that the work environment demands you either work 14-hour days or not at all, that the same day you're partying at Orson Welles' Hollywood Hills mansion you're emptying your savings account for half a tank of gas. They can never know I question my choice every day, that success is anything but certain, that I'm staring down the barrel of 30 with nothing to show for it.
And the damnedest part is I'm ashamed for feeling all of this.
For me, Young Adult taps into this blend of sociopathic superiority and profound insecurity the way few other films have. And by forcing me to take a long hard look at my ugliest emotions, Cody and Reitman tell me they've felt exactly what I'm feeling. And in exorcizing these nasty, petty emotions on the big screen, they help exorcize me of my shame.
To me this is the highest achievement in filmmaking, or perhaps art in general. A great work can not only inspire our empathy; it can empathize with us. A great work can reach across space and time and pat us on the shoulder. Great art can make us feel less alone.
Because my love for Young Adult is so tied up in my specific experience, I can't criticize anyone who dislikes the film. But I expect there are a few other people like me out there for whom it's a very special, nasty little masterpiece.
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