Film Review: Youth in Revolt
Chronically typecast but terminally adorable Michael Cera stars in quirky, colourful teen-angst comedy. Hardly headline news.
However, sitting there as the film begins the realisation dawns that although it seems he may essentially be playing himself over and over again, the roles he has played thus far were all enjoyable, and in some cases even great. It would be fair to say expectations around Youth in Revolt were mixed.
Pitched as Lolita meets Catcher in the Rye, the film begins with Nick Twisp falling for his dream girl while on holiday at a religious caravan park only a couple of days before his family are due to return home. Determined to lose his virginity, and with his new beau’s encouragement, Nick and his slick moustachioed ’supplementary persona’ François Dillinger embark on a mental safari of epic proportions in order to get his end away.
The plot isn’t particularly groundbreaking stuff, but the film is made by its dry and snappy dialogue thanks to the source material from C.D. Payne’s early ’90s novel of the same name, and is often laugh-out-loud funny. It is also highly stylised and stunningly shot with every frame easily imaginable as a still photograph.
So Michael Cera lives to entertain another day, but the question remains – how long can he realistically keep playing these characters before his act gets stale?
7/10
Not seen it myself but it looks like his alter-ego character might be an interesting play on the fact Cera always plays the same role. Maybe the kind of guy his typical character would sometimes like to be; suave and confident as opposed to shy and dry. I dunno, will have to give it a watch!