Youth In Revolt (Miguel Arteta, 2009): USA

Reviewed by Linda Ersbacken, at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater, AFI Film Festival, Hollywood.

Michael Cera is once again a comedic genius in this original comedy about a young man who falls in love and thinks he has to take on an alternate persona to win the girl over. Youth In Revolt screened at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater for the AFI Film Festival, 2 months before it’s national release date (January 8, 2010.) The theater was full and the producer was there as well as part of the cast, including Michael Cera himself to introduce the film. 

The film follows Nick Twisp (Cera) who has complicated relationships with his parents and lives with his mom and current boyfriend Jerry (Zach Galifiankis.) When 3 navy men are out to get Jerry, the family packs up and has to stay at a trailer park for a week. This is where Nick meets the “love of his life” Sheenie (Portia Doubleday). After spending the week together, they realize they want to spend more time together. To do so, Nick will have to be kicked out of his mom’s house, by being bad. So, he creates an alternate persona, Francoise, whom he believes is Sheenie’s dream guy. 

As the film progresses Nick gets in more and more hilarious trouble, as the character of Francoise develops. I believe that the character Francoise, is a character Cera’s never portrayed before. The main cristism Cera gets is that he always plays the same role. The awkward, sarcastically funny guy. Sure, we get to see that, the main character of Nick is exactly what we’re used to seeing of Cera, Francois, however is a “bad” guy, who’s intentions are to screw up and be straightforward, very unlike Nick. I was surprised by how well Cera can play this character as well, I can’t wait to see him in more films that are different from his usual geeky roles. Based on Cera’s introduction (“Hi everyone, aah… okay let’s what the movie!) It was clear that Cera is very much like his previous awkward roles, and in my opinion at least, it doesn’t get old. He is incredibly funny. Most other characters of the film were new comers and this was their first role, including Doubleday as Sheenie. I thought she was a great actress, and portrayed the character well, but character in itself wasn’t as well written as teh character of Nick. It wasn’t very clear of she really liked Nick, or if she was playing with him. 

I agree with Tamara Mamukelashvilli, who mentioned in her review how well the film portrays teenagers and their objective in their teens. To get respect they think they have to be bad and lose their virginity which was very much portrayed in the film. 

The film has some interesting stop action, animated scenes which are a clever way to add some creativity, perhaps replace some common montage’s, often seen in comedies. 

I had pretty high expectations going in to see the film and it even succeeded my expectations! I recommend this film to anyone who likes comedies and can’t wait to see it again when it comes out in theaters, 2 months from now.