Young Adult (2011)

Ruth Ward writes: Being “independently successful” and self-reliant while waxing and preening religiously to “stay young” (as our protagonist does periodically throughout the story) may not be all that is necessary for fulfillment. In the end, these things may only be suitable for bragging rights and regret which comes too late. This movie succeeds in expressing an unpopular opinion which could keep most 20- and 30-somethings up at night. Someone who has built their whole life on this individualist “success” ethos and an aimless self-serving existence, foregoing a traditional family unit, encounters the realization of the emptiness of this life too late, and they have no choice but to cling to the failed fantasy as it slowly drives them into insanity.