You know that friend that you have, the really annoying, pretentious one? The one that always rubs his advanced level of literacy in your face? The one that always complains that the book was better than the movie?
Yeah, he’ll hate this film.
But, by all accounts, most of the non-assholes in the audience should enjoy Youth in Revolt. Based on a 500 page behemoth, Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, the movie deviates from the book significantly. I don’t mean in a “Those bastards left out the Quidditch scene!” sort of way, I mean in a “Can they legally still say ‘based on’?” sort of way. Now, this in and of itself is not a bad thing: the plot remains quite engaging and imaginative, and the characters develop nicely. And, seeing as I have not read the book, I was A-OK with the adjustments that the writer, let’s face it, had to make out of time constraints. However, most of the avid readers of the book and its sequels, who are upset with the condensing and perceived corruption of the storyline, are the seemingly lone demographic that do not like this film.
Which is a shame, because it should be loved by the most literate among us. Although the film features a wide variety of humor, including sight gags, fantastic one-liners, and one unfortunate cross-dressing sequence (I am generally opposed to any humor derived from men in drag, but this is one film where it is forgiven), I found myself to be the lone laugher in the crowded theatre, often due to the subtle diction used by the narrator/main character. An aspiring novelist, his narration and dialogue are, in an odd combination, eloquently hilarious. Fortunately for those of you who enjoy a good pie-to-the-face, however, that style of humor is rampant as well (there are no literal pies thrown in faces, though). The jokes should leave you, at worst, chuckling often, and, at best, lonely laughing at even the parts no one else gets.
The story revolves around one Nick Twisp, a 16 year-old, awkward teenager (which seems ridiculous for the nearly 22 Michael Cera, until one remembers the deal Cera made with the devil to look awkwardly teenaged for centuries to come) and his miserable life; he has few friends, his parents are divorced, both of his parents’ new partners hate him, he despises them back, AND, worst of all, no girl will let him stick his penis in her (am I right, stereotypical males?). His life gets turned around when he meets Sheeni Saunders, played by Portia Doubleday, an enchanting newcomer: I’m sure I’ve never seen her before, but something feels very comforting and familiar about the young actress, which both increased my viewing pleasure and gave me weird feelings on my insides. For the rest of the film, Twisp’s actions were directed towards the goal of spending as much time with Sheeni as possible. Part of his means to this end result involved the creation of an alter ego, François. The trailers for the film overplayed the role of this additional persona: while many of the best scenes feature him, the movie is really not about him. Although I appreciated this new step in the evolution of Cera’s career (to his credit, this role took actual acting, and he pulls it off incredibly well), this fact brought me relief. Too often, filmmakers rely on one original idea as a gimmick that they base the plot around, with boring results. François is merely a wonderful foil for the main character to interact with on occasion.
Youth in Revolt is director Miguel Arteta’s first widely-released film, and he should be given much respect for taking risks in his first major venture. Given the script for what could easily be turned into a run-of-the-mill coming-of-age teen comedy, he brings in surrealist elements in many scenes, often those involving François. The music is fittingly indie, but not overbearing, without the too-common aftertaste of über-hipsterism (looking at you, Juno). And, similar to Paper Heart, a few scenes are created using animation, mainly clay-mation and cut-outs, to spruce up the visuals in extended montage scenes. Relying on this method could be annoyingly “quirky”, but Youth in Revolt keeps it to the bare minimum.
Faults do exist in the movie, obviously. The humor occasionally delves to clichéd or simply low levels; the pacing occasionally left me wondering whether a day had passed, or a month; and Michael Cera spends an uncomfortable amount of time in just his underwear, which was unsettling to me, but perhaps appeals to those of you who enjoy seeing pale, sickly Canadians half-naked.
But these weaknesses are forgotten due to the oh-so-many strengths. Besides what has already been said, I must say that the acting is superb: Ray Liotta, Steve Buschemi, Justin Long, and Fred Willard all have brilliant supporting roles whose mere existence surprised and delighted this reviewer.
Overall Score: 9/10
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