At this point I begin to feel sorry for Michael Cera. It’s clear that this guy is going to be stuck playing the same role, over and over… at least until he grows some sort of body hair. Cera’s awktard schtick has revolutionized the comedy world, which isn’t really all that great a thing. Who would have believed that this meek little dude could have such an impact on the Hollywood comedy landscape? His latest flick is Youth in Revolt, a nice rebellious tale of young love that never quite hits its stride.

In the film, Cera plays a character called Nick Twisp… a lonely little dude who firmly believes that he’s going to be a virgin for the rest of his life. Matters aren’t helped any by his jobless dad, his hooker of a mother, and all the random men that stay over at his house. When his mom and her trucker boyfriend decide to hide out at a trailer park to avoid getting harassed by angry navy dudes, Nick Twisp encounters a lovely girl who loves French stuff. Over their one week together, they become quite close… but then he has to move away. Nick and his new girl come up with a plan to get Nick moved back to the trailer park… and this is when Nick Twisp creates his alter ego, Francois Dillinger. From there, the film turns into your standard-issue comedy of errors and awktard hijinks. Sadly, the end result is rather run of the mill, and there are only a handful of bright spots within the film.

I have to hand it to director Miguel Arteta, he certainly takes some chances with this film. Unlike most comedic directors, Arteta actually adds some nice visual touches to his film. They don’t fit within the context of the movie and are rather distracting, but you have to appreciate the effort. Arteta’s efforts come off like a poor man’s version of Michel Gondry thanks to his psychedelic hallucination scene involving floating illustrations fucking and his claymation travel scene. I suspect these were thrown into the movie simply to pad its run time, because they add nothing other than distraction to the events, even if they are done rather nicely. In other areas, Arteta’s pacing is way off and Youth in Revolt barely measures on the LPM meter at all. The only real laughs come from Nick Twisp’s alter ego, who is foul-mouthed and intense enough to change the pace of the film at a whim… only there isn’t nearly enough of him in the film to keep it afloat.

The cast is star-studded and surprisingly ineffective. I can’t remember the last time I saw Steve Buscemi wasted this way. Michael Cera really plays two roles in the film, that of Nick Twisp, the annoying awktard, and that of Francois Dillinger… the best part of the movie. Cera’s awktard performance is your standard-issue Cera performance. It’s not terrible, but it’s getting a little old by this point. It was nice to see Cera spread his wings and play Francois Dillinger, who is surprisingly different from most of Cera’s other roles. I can only hope that Cera will start filtering out the roles he’s offered where they want an awkward, meek character, and find something that actually allows him to act a little bit. In that respect, I can see why Cera took this role, despite the subpar quality of the script.

Comedy in Youth in Revolt is a rare thing. The best parts of the movie have been shown in the trailer… and the trailer wasn’t even all that great. The comedic styles in the film are varied, but utterly hit and miss. You have some intellectual humor, sex humor, insult humor, and even some slapstick, but none of them hit the target. It’s almost as if the screenwriter’s threw everything they had at a wall to see what stuck… regrettably only unfunny chunks of shit stuck to this wall.

Youth in Revolt may entertain those who aren’t jaded by awktard humor and hijinks, but for those of us that have grown tired of this rapidly over-saturated comedic genre, you’ll most likely find yourself yawning. The only real reason to watch the movie is to watch Michael Cera get a chance to show that he can do something else besides play the same character over and over.

Final Synopsis: You think this will be funny… but it’s not. Skip it, unless you’ve loved every awktard comedy that was ever made. Perhaps if you’re a huge Michael Cera fan, it’ll be worth watching. Otherwise you can skip this one.

Points Lost: -1 for hit and miss humor, -1 for Michael Cera playing the same role, -1 for a bunch of filler… no matter how entertaining, -1 for wasting a solid supporting cast, -1 for taking a little too long to get started, -1 for generally uninspiring writing, -1 for hopping on the awktard bandwagon

Lesson Learned: It’s easy to sneak into a private school and get your fuck on.

Burning Question: Will Cera ever star in a comedy where he doesn’t play the same character? Also… will he ever grow body hair and have to stop playing high school kids?

Youth in Revolt
3/10

Tags: 2009, adhir kalyan, awktard, comedy, Fred Willard, high school comedy, high school movie, Justin Long, latest movie reviews, m. emmet walsh, Michael Cera, miguel arteta, portia doubleday, ray liotta, romantic comedy, stee buscemi, youth in revolt movie review, youth in revolt review, zach galifianakis