YOUTH IN REVOLT Movie Review
Youth in Revolt was released to theaters last Friday January 8 2010. The movie stars Michael Cera, Ray Liotta, Justin Long, Fred Willard, Jean Smart, Steve Buscemi, Portia Doubleday, Zach Galifianakis, Adhir Kalyan, and directed by Miguel Arteta.
Youth in Revolt Synopsis: Filled with intellectual pretensions and raging hormones, Nick Twisp (Cera) lives a dull life with his cougar mother, Estelle (Smart), and her truck-driving, loutish boyfriend, Jerry (Galifianakis). When Jerry sells a group of strapping young sailors a lemon Chevy Nova, they want revenge. In true heroic fashion, Jerry takes the family to hide out in a trailer park until the coast is clear. Nick is sorely out of place, thinking himself condemned to slum it with his barbaric family, until he meets Sheeni (newcomer Portia Doubleday), the precocious Ozu-loving dilettante in the nearby two-storey trailer. It’s love at first sight, further cemented when Sheeni plays him French crooners on vinyl. But Nick’s romanticized vision is shattered when he discovers that Sheeni is dating Trent (Jonathan B. Wright), a sickeningly handsome fop in tennis shoes and a cream-coloured sweater. With the stakes raised, Nick goes to hilarious lengths to secure Sheeni’s love, including buying her a puppy named Albert (after Camus, of course) and even creating an alter ego for himself, François Dillinger. A chain-smoking Frenchman sporting a devil-may-care moustache, François gets Nick into disaster after disaster in his quest for Sheeni’s attention.
Based on C. D. Payne’s cult-hit novel of the same name, Youth in Revolt is as smart as it is funny, combining classic black comedy with fresh new interpretations by its terrific young cast. No one plays the comedy of embarrassment better than Michael Cera, and in pitting a familiar Cera character against his dangerous French doppelganger, director Miguel Arteta has found a perfect new take on the genre.
If you are planning to go see the movie, here are a few movie reviews from around the web to help you make up your mind.
Screencrave
Michael Cera yet again plays an awkward high school boy who can’t get laid, only this time, he creates an alter ego who helps him get the girl and into a whole lot of trouble. Youth in Revolt is a surprisingly fresh take on a much seen before story about a boy who falls in love with a girl that’s out of his league. With great performances and a number of amazing guest appearances it’s a great pick if you’re looking for something both smart and funny. Read More
Wall Street Journal
Youth in Revolt” hasn’t even been released yet and it already has the air of a cultural artifact. The film has a good chance of being the last time Michael Cera convincingly plays a teenage dweeb. Really, how long can the 21 year-old actor keep repeating the same milquetoast character of “Arrested Development,” “Superbad” and now this latest installment?. Read More
Cinematical
As with most of the popular-book-to-film adaptations, you can look at Youth in Revolt a couple of different ways: From the point of view of someone who has read the source material, and (of course) from the point of view of someone who hasn’t. C.D Payne’s epic, 499-page novel is to teenage angst what the bible is to Christianity — and it’s always sort of reminded me of what a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye might look like if it was set in modern-day (if somewhat outdated) Oakland — and featured a 14-year-old Frank Sinatra fanatic who would literally destroy an entire city if it meant winning over the girl of his dreams. Read More
You can watch the trailer below.
