Episode 65: Young Adult with Vesta Millard

On the sixty- fifth episode of All the Film Things, former broadcaster/ executive producer/ writer/ actress/ proud cat mom Vesta Millard joins me for an analytical discussion about Jason Reitman’s 2011 comedy/ drama film Young Adult, in celebration of Charlize Theron’s recent birthday and the film’s 15th anniversary! This episode is spoiler- filled. Young Adult has been one of my most- watched films for about a decade now as it is an endlessly entertaining, fascinating character study of a film. The film revolves around Mavis Gary (Theron), a ghostwriter of a popular YA book series who was wildly popular in high school, going back to her hometown on a whim to get back together with her high school boyfriend Buddy (Patrick Wilson), whose now married and a new father. While in town, Mavis makes a sort- of drinking buddy out of Matt, a former classmate of hers that has a disability who wasn’t popular in high school. He tries to ground Mavis as she confides in him her ambitious plans of reuniting with Buddy, but there’s no stopping Mavis Gary. Vesta’s latest short film, and the fifth installment of “The Witch Diaries” series, “Sister of Shadows”, is near completion and set to premiere this October in St. Augustine! Like the previous shorts in the series, Vesta produced, wrote, and plays the lead role, good witch Tara Ward. Vesta talks all about the modern, darker story of the new approximately thirty- minute long short and her plan to release what may be the final installment in the series. Learn more and stay updated on the release of “Sister of Shadows” by following Vesta Millard’s Facebook page. This is Vesta’s second appearance on ATFT! I interviewed Vesta back in October 2024 (click here to listen to that interview) where I was fascinated to learn about her incredible career from her radio days in New York to being the force behind getting a law signed to acting- both vocally and on- screen. We met earlier that year when I worked on the set of her short film “Time Will Tell”. After attending the premiere of the short a month later, we hadn’t seen each other until this past June when she led a WIFT event about voice acting that was both informative and a lot of fun. There I learned her next short film was nearing completion and that she wanted to come back on the podcast. I told her I had been looking for someone to join me in analyzing Young Adult so she watched the film for the first time just for this discussion and thankfully she loved it! Part of why I’ve watched this film so many times is because my analysis of Mavis Gary is never ending. Though we did dive deep into analyzing her through this discussion, I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. Listening to this episode back while editing I find myself wishing I could have taken other trajectories using other analyses I’ve made of Mavis through the years. I often have this feeling with really each episode, but this film especially is one I could dive even further into which is a testament to how brilliant this film is from Diablo Cody’s screenplay to Jason Reitman’s direction to Charlize Theron’s performance. This episode was recorded on July 15, 2026. In this episode, Vesta and I dive deep into analyzing the unique and complex Mavis Gary by discussing whether or not she truly had a shot at reuniting with Buddy, the potential cure to Mavis’ arrested development, and declare justice for Mavis’ dog Dolcé (who wasn’t harmed, just not appreciated in the way she so deserved. Vesta also suggests why Mavis’ hometown is named Mercury while I shared how I became a Charlize Theron fan. Tangents in this episode include discussing Charlize Theron’s latest film, The Odyssey, a collaboration that means tons to me as a Nolan loyalist from a young age. All this and much more on the latest episode of All the Film Things!Background music created and used with permission by the Copyright Free Music - Background Music for Videos channel on YouTube.