Young Adult Cinema: The Redemption

Twenty-two year old actress Shailene Woodley is currently starring in the sci-fi dystopian franchise Divergent, based on the trilogy by Veronica Roth. The first film has already raked in over $140 million worldwide, and plans are in motion to make three more films; dividing the final book into two films, in the style of Twilight and The Hunger Games.

But the mediocre, trope-laden vehicle about individualism and overthrowing an objectifying, category-driven authority isn’t how Woodley is heading up the shift in YA cinema. Indeed, Divergent is so far proving the anomaly in Woodley’s career, which is otherwise focusing on bringing realistic, teen-focused drama to the screen. Woodley is currently starring in the subtle romantic drama The Spectacular Now opposite Miles Teller; the upcoming adaptation of John Green’s beloved The Fault In Our Stars about a young cancer patient trying to navigate love; and the thriller White Bird In A Blizzard, which sees a college-bound teenager exploring her sexuality before being hit with the news that her enigmatic mother has disappeared. The projects are united in their desire to portray realistic teenagers and relatable struggles, far from the fantasy-driven YA films that have dominated our screens for the past decade.

Woodley’s career trajectory is thus indicative of a welcome shift away from vampires and monsters and science-fiction; a desire to cut straight to the heart of these metaphors for deep adolescent emotion. It’s a movement that can largely be attributed to the ever-expanding wealth of great YA novels with utterly evangelical fans – or, as Hollywood executives call them, “an in-built audience.” The critical and slow-burning commercial successes of adaptations like The Perks of Being A Wallflower have not gone unnoticed, and are paving the way for more quietly powerful tales of the teenage experience. The rights to Rainbow Rowell’s gorgeous novel Eleanor and Park have recently been picked up by Dreamworks, while Chloe Moretz is heading up the upcoming adaption of Gayle Forman’s tearjerker novel about comas and music, If I Say.

Here’s hoping that this much-needed move back to intelligent and emotive YA cinema shows that Hollywood is finally realising that teenagers deserve better than cynical and vapid vehicles for marketing – hell, we all do.