Michael Cera has become such a ubiquitous and perhaps overexposed media presence in the last few years that I had forgotten how perfectly he can evoke awkward adolescence. There’s a moment early in Youth in Revolt where he is out for a walk with a beautiful young girl he has just met, and, wearing a nerdy beige polo t-shirt tucked into his slightly-too-short black pants, attempts to casually cross his arms. It doesn’t go well: his right hand lingers awkwardly outside his arm, as if he is not entirely confident that the whole arm-crossing thing is the approach he should be going for. In the presence of a pretty girl, this poor boy has forgotten the body language of normal people.
In Youth in Revolt, Cera ostensibly plays Nick Twisp, the hero of C.D. Payne’s much-loved teen novel, who when we first meet him is masturbating furiously under the covers of the tiny single bed he’s probably had since childhood. He is 16 years old, enjoys Frank Sinatra, rents Fellini movies, and considers himself an aspiring novelist. “Needless to say,” he adds, “I’m a virgin.” In his spare time, Nick hangs out with his even more awkward friend Lefty (Eric Knudsen), who has the slight advantage of owning an illicit book of exotic sexual positions, and who regales Nick with hearsay about what, exactly, one could do with one’s pinkie. I have not read C.D. Payne’s book, but I’ll bet this characterization owes a little bit more to Cera’s well-established teenage Woody Allen persona than to Payne’s protagonist.
But something new has been added. Nick meets the above-mentioned beautiful girl, Sheeni (Portia Doubleday) during what can be best described as an impromptu summer holiday, and their resulting fling—particularly Nick’s “first undisputable make-out session”—has convinced him that he’s found his one and only love. Now separated in different towns and by Sheeni’s ultrareligious parents, Nick’s best chance at remaining in Sheeni’s affections is to take on the bad boy persona that she lusts after.
Here Cera takes on a dual role as Nick’s imaginary persona “Francois Dillinger”—or, Cera/Nick with white dress pants, ludicrous ’70s shoes, a Cesar Romero moustache and an ever-present cigarette, prone to making aggressively sexual advances around women and committing sizeable acts of arson. He also influences Nick to go to extreme lengths to reunite with his crush and lose his virginity, up to and including recruiting someone to put sleeping pills in her coffee so that she may be expelled from her boarding school.
Youth in Revolt is one of those rare teen movies like Superbad, Adventureland, or the better John Hughes efforts that actually understand what it’s like to be a teenager. Everything has the ring of truth: Nick’s repulsed fascination with the sex manual, the way he falls, and the unfortunate tendency of a teenage male to become easily—and visibly—aroused. Even the tiny details are right: I like Cera’s stiff, tentative way of walking. Plus, François’ clothing ensemble, with its Tony-Manero-shopping-at-Goodwill aesthetic, strikes me as exactly the type of ensemble that Nick would believe is smooth. Director Miguel Arteta (Chuck & Buck) keeps things moving at a rapid pace, and manages the split-personality device with tongue-in-cheek deftness.
Youth in Revolt regards Nick/Francois with sympathy but strict objectivity until its final act, when it stumbles badly with its too-tidy resolution. The double-persona keeps Nick fundamentally likeable by using François as a convenient scapegoat for some pretty unforgivable deeds. A movie this observant about teenage males, though, should be smart enough to show that Nick is motivated more out of selfishness (and horniness) than actual love. (The final scenes also suggest that while Arteta and company might know a lot about boys, girls require a lot of guesswork.) Incidentally, I could also have done without the scene where the uptight parents have an accidental mushroom high. After seeing this joke in a few dozen other movies, I’m starting to realize it never really goes anywhere.
Still, this is a witty and inventive film, and it takes Cera’s well-established comic persona into such dark and fascinating territory that I daresay it might be the ultimate Michael Cera film. Cera has become a master of teenage insecurity, but after Youth in Revolt, I think he would be wise to go in a different direction. He’s taken this as far as it can go.
Youth in Revolt opens on Jan. 8.
