Youth in Revolt: Review By harveycritic

YOUTH IN REVOLT

Dimension Films

Reviewed for MovieWeb by Harvey Karten

Grade: A-

Directed by: Miguel Arteta

Written By: Gustin Nash, from C.D. Payne's novel "Youth In Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp" and "Young and Revolting: The Continental Journals of Nick Twisp"

Cast: Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Justin Long, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi, Jean Smart, Fred Willard, Zach Galifianakis

Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 11/11/09

Opens: January 8, 2010

When I was a young lad my best friend, frustrated in love, would complain to me: "Hey, Harvey, how come the great-looking girls looked right past nice guys like me and always go for the bad guys-the black leather-jacket crowd with duck's-ass hair styles that work in gas stations and auto repair shops and act like they don't give much of a damn about them?" I answered with what was a cliché, even in my own youth: "Don't worry. They look to guys like us to marry because they know we're nice and would make great fathers. Sooner or later, they'll come around."

Since I don't know a chassis from a trunk, I'm glad to say that the advice is spot-on. But did they have to wait until the nice guys were twenty-five?

All the frustrations of unrequited puppy love are on display in Miguel Arteta's enormously entertaining movie based on the popular novels of C.D. Payne, which balance snark with sentiment in great dollops. Who better to portray a modern Holden Caulfield than Michael Cera, a twenty-one-year old Canadian as a 16-year-old guy who cavils that he's been alone all his life. Nor does Cera look a day older than sweet 16.

While sex is both text and subtext, Judd Apatow fans who look to over-the-top vulgarity may be disappointed, but director Arteta, developing the screenplay of "Charlie Bartlett" writer Gustin Nash, shows that you don't have to follow the line that began with "There's Something About Mary" to evoke youthful horniness.

This (literally) coming-of-age comedy is dialogue-filled with vocabulary that may go over the heads of those who spend their days staring at their iPhones and listening to iPods. Michael Cera plays the joint role of Nick Twisp, the aforementioned icon of "nice guy" and Francois, a Jean-Paul Belmondo clone who sports a mustache, smokes like a chimney, and like the little Satan that whispers into the ears of the vulnerable regularly urges Nick to "do the bad thing." And Nick does it all with a vengeance, committing arson (albeit in a comical way), seduction (the sentimental and comic kind), and some Walter-Mitty fantasying, much of which is executed by Nick while Francois, his alter ego, is in the same room. (This is achieved by the miracle of modern photographic technology.) When Nick meets the girl of his dreams, Sheeni Saunders (newcomer Portia Doubleday), he falls head over heels in love, though Sheeni, a handful, is a free spirit, not a virgin, and puts the lad off with tales of her multi-talented boyfriend Trent (Jonathan Bradford Wright).

While the two youths feel their way gently through their new relationship, the vigorous sensuality of adults in Nick's life push the Judd-Apatow boundaries. Estelle Twisp (Jean Smart), his divorced mom cavorts lustily with white-trash Jerry (Zach Galifianakis) while his divorced dad, George (Steve Buscemi) makes out with Lacey (Ari Graynor), a woman closer to Nick's age. Comic adventures include accidental arson that leads of $5 million in damage in the Berkeley, California area (Michigan is used), plus some delightful side characters like Fred Willard as Mr. Ferguson, a lefty who hides illegal aliens in his basement, by Justin Long as a wiseass brother of Sheeni, by Adhir Kalyan as Michael's new friend similarly seeking sexual adventure, by Mary Kay Place and M. Emmet Walsh as Sheeni's bible-thumping parents, and Ray Liotta as a cop who becomes Estelle's boyfriend after Jerry flies the coop.

As if the festivities are not inventive enough, "Youth in Revolt" adds animation now and then, most amusing when Nick, high on weed, has vision of Kama Sutra positions floating over his head. How refreshing to see that not a single cell phone is used, nobody texts, and Sheeni delights in the use of turntables rather than DVDs for music, a young woman whose favorite vocalists include Frank Sinatra. (Frank who?)

Rated R. 90 minutes. © 2010 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online