Youth in Revolt
Review - Bobby Belt for The MungleShow
Youth in Revolt is a new movie that's based on a C.D. Payne book series of the same title and is directed by Miguel Arteta.
It follows the romantic struggles of awkward teenager Nick Twisp (Michael Cera). He doesn't have many friends, his mother is dating a man he can't stand and his father pretty much goes through life ignoring him. Nick is just a little bit different, and it causes for him to have struggles in the Ladies department. But it all changes when he and his mother take a vacation and there he meets who he believes to be the most wonderful girl in the world...Sheeni. She's beautiful, has a love for vinyl records and the same view of life as he has.
But she has a boyfriend. And she has parents who hate Nick. And she lives in a competely different city from Nick. Nick can't deal with such trauma. He's not the type who can easily devise a plan to fix these problems. It is no problem, however, for his alter ego...Francois Dillinger.
After returning from vacation, Nick gives into his alter ego and begins letting him call the shots so that he can be with his love, Sheeni. Francois answers to no one but himself and has no regard for the law. He's everything Nick is not. Will Nick's rebel side be enough to win Sheeni over?
Youth in Revolt is a pretty funny concept. It does a good job at capsulizing the "Why must I be a teenager in love?" effect...for about half the movie. It has a very odd pace to it, often feeling like there are entire scenes missing and there are numerous times where the actions of the characters seem in complete contradiction to the reasons they're doing it. In defense though, teenagers in love will often do things that don't seem to be the most logical.
I think the most interesting thing about Youth in Revolt, and what ultimately pushes the movie to a positive review, is the alter ego angle with Francois. The insecurities taking over Nick and telling him being who he is will just never be enough, so he needs to let everything he's not run his life. It's a bit of a changeup for Michael Cera, who is occasionally criticized for playing the same role in every film. The awkward teen who just wants to be loved. He still plays a character like that in this movie, but the alter ego really causes for a funny tug of war in Cera's acting.
Youth in Revolt is rated R for sexual content, language and drug use. There is plenty of all three of those things being thrown around, so it's probably something for the parents or the older teenager only.
Overall, I would give Youth in Revolt 3 out of 5 vandalized Lincoln's.
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