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Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Director: Miguel Arteta
Cast: Michael Cera, Justin Long, Steve Buscemi
RunTime: 1 hr 30 mins
Released By: Golden Village
Rating: M18 (Sexual
Scenes & Sexual References)
Official Website: http://www.weinsteinco.com/#/film/youth_in_revolt
Opening Day: 15 April 2010
Synopsis:
Youth In Revolt is the outrageous and heartwarming tale of Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) and his quest to win the heart of Sheeni (newcomer Portia Doubleday) and hopefully lose his virginity along the way. Based on C.D. Payne's cult-hit novel of the same name, "Youth In Revolt".
Movie Review:
Juno,
Superbad, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist –
if there’s one common contention about these movies,
it’s that Michael Cera seems like he is playing the
same characters in all of them. In the movies that have been
mentioned, he played nerds or geeks all of whom were “not
one of the cool ones” but somehow ended up being adorable
ones who got the girl at the end of the day. To put it simply,
he plays yet another similar role in Youth in Revolt, well,
at least until Francois Dillinger appears.
In Youth in Revolt, he plays Nick Twisp, a teenage boy who
is taken on a “holiday” by his mother and her
boyfriend (a Zach Galifianiakis cameo here) to a trailer park
where he meets Sheeni Saunders (newcomer Portia Doubleday)
and falls in love with her. Believing that she is more than
just a spring fling, he hopes that she will be the one who
will eventually take away his virginity. He soon returns home
but decides to conjure a braver and cooler alter ego in the
form of Francois Dillinger. As a result, Francois helps him
to come up with ways to get him to reunite with Sheeni, which
obviously gets him involved in pretty interesting predicaments.
The comedy in this movie is a hoot especially scenes which
involve both Nick and Twisp. The usually uptight and nervous
Nick has to content with the daring nature of Francois who
makes him do things he would not normally do. In this instance,
a scene which involves a car, petroleum, a building and a
whole of fire comes to mind. Also, Michael Cera has good comic
timing. He is able to deliver zingers with doses of deadpan.
However, while he shows some signs of potential here, he needs
to break away from being typecast (Year One anyone?) and play
various characters. Let’s hope Scott Pilgrim Versus
the World will be an improvement for him.
Although indie director, Miguel Arteta manages to get the
comedy pat down, the structure of the movie feels like it
is just a brief run through of a boy’s teenage years.
Sure, the dialogue will draw much laughter and scenes which
push certain boundaries but there is an essence that is truly
missing from the movie. There is a lot of potential for certain
relationships to develop and arcs to explore. Most characters
feel significantly underdeveloped, fitting into the story
just to carry it along. As a result, the fantastic line up
of supporting cast members like Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta
and Justin Long do what they can do in whatever limited space
they were given to play with.
Youth in Revolt is one of those coming-of-age movies but this
one has a slight edge to it. A watchable movie to laugh about,
this is a fun adventure but it all ends far too quickly and
not likely to allow you to reminisce on your own growing up
days.
Movie Rating:
(An enjoyable coming-of-age movie!)
Review by Mohamad Shaifulbahri
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