Dimension Films | USA | 90 min
Note: This review contains major spoilers.
Another hilarious comedy with Michael Cera? What a surprise. A dark comedy with Michael Cera? That’s new and that’s also the reason why Youth in Revolt works as well as it does. After the crushing disappointment with Year One, Cera returns to his comedic roots while also showing a whole new side of his talent that hasn’t been seen before. This may not be Superbad, but it’s remains a hilariously quirky comedy.
Nick Twisp is not your average teenage. He listens to Frank Sinatra, reads classic literature and is an eccentric intellectual. He’s stuck with two horrible parents (Jean Smart and Steve Buscemi) that treat him as if he barely exists. He has to live at home with his trashy mother and even trashier boyfriend Jerry (Zach Galifianakis). After Jerry sold a busted car to a group of sailors, he takes Nick and his mother to a trailer park to hideout. While there Nick meets Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) who soon becomes the central focus of his desire. Unsurprisingly, Nick’s main goal in life is to get laid. That’s the main appeal of the dislikable Sheeni who treats him like a child.
Soon he finds himself back home with his mother and away from Sheeni. Now he must find a way to get out of living with his mother and to get back to Sheeni. Nick’s mission is to do somewhat morally questionable acts so he can go back to the trailer park to be with her. Unfortunately, he’s incapable of pulling off a heinous act due to his shy and awkward persona. So he makes the predictable decision: create an alter ego named Francois Dillinger to do the the dirty deeds he cannot. Francois is everything Nick isn’t and is everything Sheeni wants. Francois is what will drive Nick to achieving his goal in life.
There’s been plenty of comparisons of the alter ego aspect to Fight Club and there’s plenty of truth behind the comparison, but the overall outcome of this creation is much different. Francois achieves the same thing Tyler Durden did (for the first half of Fight Club): he makes Nick achieve his goal and do things that he would never be able to do. The major difference is Nick never changes in the end. There’s no drastic repercussions of Francois’s creation. Nick gets what he wants (getting laid) and he pays a very little price at the end. Towards the end of the film there’s a build up and the stakes are raised for Nick. In comedic fashion, all he has to do is three months in a juvenile detention center. He never resents Francois. Why should he? He’s stuck in an already poor life and he gets him what he wants in the end. There’s never a realization or the cliché ending where Nick has an epiphany. That overused trope never comes into play and Francois will (hopefully) continue to stay in his life.
Michael Cera has unfortunately received an unfair backlash for his commonly used shtick, even though he’s generally hilarious and also showed a fair amount of dramatic range in Juno. Despite that, his awkward humor has grown weary for some and here he’ll win those people over. That persona still applies to Nick, but what Cera does with Francois ranks amongst his best work. Francois is creepy, slick and the polar opposite of Nick and everything Cera has done in the past. It’s a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Cera plays that duality perfectly. When a film has a supporting cast of Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi, Justin Long, Zach Galifianakis and Fred Willard it should equal nothing but pure comedic gold, and it does. There’s not a single cast member wasted and everyone has their moments.
The main issue with Youth in Revolt lies within its structure. The narrative is very episodic and it is far too loose. This is most apparent during the third act where every element feels rushed and choppy. That’s the only genuine problem in this overall successful comedy. Miguel Arteta’s best film yet is deliciously dark, consistently funny and is a fantastic way to kick off the year.