Mavis hated the town, hated everything about it, hated all the people in it, that was, except Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson), who used to be her boyfriend. The renowned writer of Juno is making a entirely different attempt here by depicting a mid-life crisis of Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) and her return visit to her hometown where she lived when she was a teenager.
Young Adult is Diablo Cody's latest utterly refreshing attempt on the life of a once-famous high school queen who was facing challenges in her life. Matt ends up being Mavis' drinking buddy and confidante, Matt, in turn, who tries to be Mavis' voice of reason to get her out of her delusional state about Buddy and get a grip on reclaiming her life as a functioning adult. he was beaten almost to death by the school jocks who believed he was gay (which he is not), which has left him among other things needing to walk with a brace. She barely remembers Matt until she is reminded that he was the "hate crime" kid i.e. As Mavis slyly or not so slyly does whatever she can to hang out with Buddy, even in Beth's company if need be, she also runs into another old high school colleague named Matt Freehauf. As such, she devises a false pretense to travel from her Minneapolis home back her her old hometown of Mercury, Minnesota to reclaim Buddy from Beth. When she receives news that her high school beau, Buddy Slade, and his wife, Beth Slade, have just had their first child, Mavis takes it as a sign that she and Buddy are meant to be together. She lives vicariously through Kendall Strickland, the teenaged female heroine in her books, as like Kendall she believes her high school years were the best years of her life when she was the prom queen. She is in the process of writing the last book, with which she is having a mental block.
She ghosts writes a young adult series of books, which has just been canceled due to low sales.
She has had one failed marriage with no romance in her immediate horizon. Thirty-seven year old Mavis Gary seems incapable of happiness.