YOUTH IN REVOLT (15)
Directed by Miguel Arteta
Starring Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Steve Buscemi, Jean Smart, Ray Liotta, Justin Long, Fred Willard

By Lloyd Rundle

From the moment the curtain goes up to a blank screen soundtracked by the grunts and moans as the central character ‘pleasures’ himself, it is pretty clear Youth In Revolt is not your average coming-of-age movie.

Funny, honest, sometimes startling, and always entertaining, what follows isn’t life changing but, damn, if I didn’t leave the theatre thinking Youth In Revolt wasn’t gloriously good fun! A little too close to the truth on occasion but that’s a good thing. Above all, it was that all too rare of things – a riotous lark with little time for sentimentality but with a good heart, nonetheless.

Starring Michael Cera (Arrested Development) and helmed by the Puerto Rican director Miguel Arteta, Youth In Revolt is an amusing portrayal of that time every guy (and, probably, girl) in the audience has gone through at one point in life – teenage rebellion and the joy and pain of first love.

We’ve all been there, done it, been embarrassed and – with a little luck – won out in the end. That’s perhaps why this is such an enjoyable piece of cinema – we can recognise a little bit of ourselves reflected up there on screen (which is always fun). And that’s also why it had me squirming in my seat – there were a few too many uncomfortable truths on show. But, again, that’s half the fun. And therein, in the end, is where Youth In Revolt is so successful – sometimes, it’s so much goddamn fun to be bad!

Based on the acclaimed novel by C. D. Payne, Youth In Revolt: The Journals Of Nick Twisp, could have been an outrageous (and over-bearing) farce, but instead it’s more about understatement and guile. Those opening grunts introduce us into the world of Nick Twisp – an affable teen with a taste for the finer things in life like Frank Sinatra and Fellini films.

Unsuccessful with girls and desperate to lose his virginity, Nick falls hopelessly in love with the free-spirited Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) while on a family vacation and abandons his dull, predictable life for a path of destruction and rebellion as part of an outlandish plot the two hatch to stay together. As the Sheeni tells him: “You must be bad, Nickie. Very, very bad.”

Daunted by the thought of the possible consequences his actions, Nick throws caution to the wind and seizes upon the spirit of French New Wave cinema – and Jean-Paul Belmondo, in particular – creating an alter-ego for his derring-do, Francois Dillinger, the kind of savvy, charming, dapper, sociopathic nut we’d all like to be for one day only.

What follows between the two is reminiscent of Fight Club in its intent – as the innocent Nick watches, dumbstruck, while Francois wreaks havoc across northern California – but with none of the nihilism of David Fincher’s nineties classic on mid-life crisis and macho impotent rage. Quite the opposite – this is all about the trials and possible delights of growing-up and, while there are a few explosions along the way, there are also imaginative flights of fancy including a road trip wearing nothing but underwear and sexual experimentation at a French-language school, all interspersed with moments of crazed animation fleshing out Nick’s private thoughts and (in one particularly imaginative scene) sexual fantasies whilst experimenting with drugs.

Through all this, Francois carries him (and the audience) along with an effortless cool seemingly from a bygone age. His characterisation, especially, feels fresh and engaging with lines like, “I’m going to wrap your legs around my head and wear you like the crown that you are”, jumping straight off the screen and into my notebook for use at a later date.

And that is what gives Youth In Revolt its added edge. As the tag line says – “Every revolution needs a leader” – and Francois is it. But Francois is a creation of everyman-Nick’s fevered imagination and so one might hope there is a little bit of Francois in all of us. To its credit, the story is played out with none of the sentimentality which has been a feature of many Hollywood coming-of-age tales. Youth In Revolt remains low-key and off-beat, avoiding the more-obvious path of outrageousness seen in recent comedies such as The Hangover (whose star, Zach Galifianakis, appears here in a minor role), retaining an indie feel that adds to the overall charm.

This is a tale of adolescent love and jealousy that one-and-all will recognise and the interaction between the characters is honest and believable. Michael Cera stretches himself in his most diverse role to date. His portrayal of put-upon adolescence was winsome in Arrested Development but, by Juno and Superbad, Cera was beginning to seem like a one-trick pony, so it’s refreshing to see a young actor taking a risk. Alter-ego Francois could have come across as charmless and arrogant – a man we love to hate – but here he’s the driving force, the élan – the man we’d like to be – and Cera carries it off with verve and gusto.

Newcomer Portia Doubleday plays the wise-innocent Sheeni with an engaging mischievousness that a lesser actress could have brought off as conniving and bitchy. Instead, Sheeni’s love of Serge Gainsbourg – in fact, all things French – and ‘robotic poetry’ (see the film for a fuller explanation) are entirely believable from a Californian teenager living in a trailer park with a dog named after the poet Albert Camus. Pretentious? Yes. Fun? Most certainly!

Director Arteta – who last helmed the Jennifer Aniston vehicle The Good Girl – keeps the story ticking along nicely here and has assembled an enviable cast of accomplished actors in supporting roles. In roles of Nick’s divorced parents are Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, Trees Lounge) as the jobless womaniser George and Jean Smart (I ♥ Huckabees) as the lonely man-hungry mother, Estelle.

Along the way, Ray Liotta pops up as a maladjusted local cop dating Estelle (basically reprising his screen debut from Something Wild in his evil intent towards Nick) and Justin Long (Die Hard 4.0) as Sheeni’s stoner brother Paul who enjoys nothing more than spiking their Christian fundamentalist parents’ food with mushrooms of the magic kind.

And special mention must go to noted comedic-actor, Fred Willard (This Is Spinal Tap, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy) who gives a brief but hilarious turn as local political-activist and all-round good guy Mr Ferguson, coming to Nick’s aid more than once.

All in all, Youth In Revolt is immensely enjoyable and well worth the admission. Wryly observed, it may not appear at first to be as outrageous and wild as other teen comedies. But, for its low-key approach and honesty, it’s all the more off-beat, outlandish and unconventional for it. A charm!

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