Young Adult

Most antiheroes indulge our taste for the illicit. Almost no one would actually rob banks like Clyde Barrow in "Bonnie and Clyde," or rule the mob with an iron fist like Michael Corleone in "The Godfather Part II," or booze at work like Don Draper in "Mad Men." But there's some part of us that wishes we could be like these irresponsible characters.

No one would want to be like Mavis Gary, the subject of "Young Adult." She's just a flat-out bitch.

Sure, she's beautiful and writes a hit young adult book series. But she's so insecure that she wears falsies. And she's merely a ghostwriter of a series long past its peak.

Moreover, she's a lazy, alcoholic slob. And did I mention she's a home wrecker?

Or at least, she'd like to be one. Trouble is, the object of her desire, Buddy Slade, is happily married with a newborn.

"Young Adult" is an experiment in seeing how unlikable it can make its main character. It ups the ante even further by setting the action in a pleasant small town where everyone is friendly, further playing up the contrast.

"Young Adult" represents a major step forward for screenwriter Diablo Cody. Sometimes Cody can overdo her concept a bit here: Does Buddy's wife really have to be a special education teacher? But Cody has put a new spin on her favorite concept, kids in high school, by writing about a character who effectively stopped maturing at graduation.

She's also moved on from the quips that got so much attention in "Juno" and "Jennifer's Body." There's nothing necessarily wrong with writing clever phrases like "honest to blog," but it would have worn thin over time. In "Young Adult" Cody gets big laughs elsewhere, largely through revealing the sheer awfulness of Mavis.

"Young Adult" feels like a classic film from the 1970s. It doesn't care much about giving the audience a compelling plot or an emotional investment in the material. It just takes an interesting subject and puts her under a microscope. The resulting slides aren't pretty.