Mad, bad and dangerous to know.
At one point in Youth in Revolt the character played by Michael Cera; Nick Twisp, realises that he must act in a despicable and unsociable manner for he and his dream woman to be together.As you might expect from any character played by Michael Cera this is not an easy task, so he decides to come up with an alter-ego that fulfils the nasty and unseemly requirements.
“I just want to make you happy is all.”
Nick himself is a fairly standard middle-of-the-road teen, he is socially awkward, gangly and unsure of himself. His dream girl is Sheeni, the daughter of ultra-religious parents who is self-confident and knows exactly what she wants. Unfortunately while she sorta wants Nick, she also is sorta already with Trent, who sounds like any dream girl’s dream man. After Nick’s efforts are thwarted and Sheeni is sent to a distant boarding school that happens to be near where this mysteriously dreamy Trent lives, Nick pulls out all the stops and the hunt is on. Nick decides that the only solution is to get Sheeni expelled so she can be home and nearer to his embrace. (I made myself twitch a little there.)
Deep breath.
Now Nick simply can’t be a prick, so he thinks up someone that will, the sort of guy that Sheeni would have no choice but to go for, a sly, smoking, self confident guy named Francois, which is basically Nick with a wispy moustache.
Respect the ‘stache!
Nick tags Francois “in” at various times during the film where his own wimpy ways just won’t cut it, but unfortunately Francois’ techniques tend to be a little extreme, and the first attempt at moderately anarchic acts causes a 5M fire, when news of this gets out Nick is blackballed by Sheeni’s parents and his father alike. Now on the quasi-run from the police, Sheeni’s parents, the cop Nick’s Mum has shacked up with and the uber-Trent, Nick and his new Indian friend Vijay (the “Golly-gosh” type, not the “How” type. Sometimes stereotypes are the best way) set off on a series of adventures, some saucy in a straight M rated way, others more of the quirky variety.
The problem with Youth in Revolt is that it wants to be Francois, edgy, dangerous and a little unpredictable, but it ends up 100% Nick, nice, straightforward and mainstream, it’s all a little underwhelming in the end.
The film has several arty actors, including Cera, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, Justin Long, Ray Liotta (who is both arty and mainstream) and the currently everywhere Zach Galifianakis. None of them really have sufficient screentime to make an impact, but Buscemi has a crack at making his role as Nick’s Dad memorable.
My other issue is that of Michael Cera, he is rapidly becoming the poster boy for nerdy white middleclass teens and young adults. Inept, not “matinee idol” handsome and with no discernable chick magnet qualities, he nonetheless has managed to get his end away with quality tail in Nick & Norahs Infinite Playlist, Juno, (nearly) Superbad and now this… (I can’t remember how he fared in Year One.)
I can’t be hatin’. Keep on gettin’ some Mad Mike!
As a former Nick Twisp myself, and worse one growing up in a more repressed time where “Just say no” was the norm and the ever present fear of STDs prevailed it is very annoying to watch this pathetic dork nail almost everything in sight.
Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. It has a couple of nice scenes but is nowhere near as dangerous or edgy as it seems to think it is.
