#1. Cheap Youth in RevoltBy Sony

#1 Cheap Youth in Revolt Reviews

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This film is quite polarizing. Some people really like it, and some think it's the worst film ever. I myself am in the former category, with some reservations. The film was released in January this year and did poorly at the box office. I think this is due to two reasons: 1. The release date (nobody sees a film in January); 2. The film really has no target audience. Whereas a film like "The Hangover" was so successful because virtually anyone could enjoy it, this film is the opposite; it's a mainstream film designed for a very small niche.

Based on a 500 page novel by C. D. Payne, "Youth in Revolt" is a very strange movie. I have not read the novel, but I assume the film offers a very condensed, Cliffs-Notes like retelling of the story. Michael Cera (that awkward guy from "Superbad" and "Juno") stars as 16-year-old Nick Twisp, a Holden Caulfield-like character.

Nick lives with his erratic mom, Estelle (Jean Smart), and her oafish boyfriend, Jerry (Zach Galifinakis of the aforementioned "Hangover"), in Oakland, California. When Jerry owes a group of sailors money for a car, Jerry takes Estelle and Nick on vacation to Clearlake to a trailer park, where Nick meets Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), a beautiful girl with shard interests. Nick spends time with Sheeni, learning that she's just as neurotic as he is. She tells him she already has a boyfriend in the jock/poet Trent Preston (Jonathan Bradford Wright), and Nick makes up a girlfriend named Martha to impress Sheeni. Sheeni later reads his diary and is not upset that he lied to her. They buy a dog, whom Sheeni names Albert (pronounced Al-Bear), who becomes their "lovechild." When it comes time for Nick to leave, Sheeni encourages him to be "very, very bad" so he can move to Ukiah to live with his temperamental father, George (Steve Buscemi), and they can be together.

Back at home, Nick coaxes his best friend, Lefty (Erik Knudsen), to keep Albert for him since Estelle hates dogs. Nick creates an alter-ego to help him with his misdeeds, a French boy by the name of François Dillinger (Sheeni dreams of her French husband to be named François), who has a deeper voice, a mustache, blue eyes, and a player/bad boy attitude. With François' help, Nick begins to mouth off to his mom and her new boyfriend, police officer Lance Wescott (Ray Liotta) (Jerry has just died of a heart attack in a bar). Nick soon causes the most trouble when François takes the family car and trailer out onto the streets with gasoline in the back seat and "accidentally" lets the trailer go, sending it crashing into a local restaurant. Then François lets go of the car, spiraling it into the trailer, causing a huge explosion and traffic jam.

I will not go into any more detail, so as not to spoil anything. While it's not for everyone, I liked it.

Recommended.

Youth in Revolt Overview

Youth in Revolt is a coming-of-age comedy that puts a fresh and outrageous stamp on a tale of adolescent obsession and rebellion. Based on the acclaimed novel by C.D. Payne, Youth in Revolt is the story of Nick Twisp - a unique, but affable teen with a taste for the finer things in life like Sinatra and Fellini - who falls hopelessly in love with the beautiful, free-spirited Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) while on a family vacation. But family, geography and jealous ex-lovers conspire to keep these two apart. With Sheeni's encouragement, Nick abandons his dull, predictable life and develops a rebellious alter ego: Francois. With his ascot, his moustache and his cigarette, Francois will stop at nothing to be with Sheeni and leads Nick Twisp on a path of destruction with unpredictable and uproarious consequences.


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A crush becomes an obsession becomes an "out of my league" movie. This leads to an idea: if our lead can't get the girl, "he" can get her. The "he" here is still the lead but he's the manifestation of everything that he thinks his dreamgirl would want. He's risky, he brash, he's charming, he can grow facial hair, and he dresses better - in his mind. The problem is that he doesn't seem to have a handle on this part of his persona and, as things go deeper into the psyche department they also seem to go South - quickly.

When Crea came out in Superbad, Arrested Development, and so many othe rmovies, I found his brand of humor really funny. The problem is, eventually, the same actor starts to run his course. This seems to be a big problem for me in this movie and it is made worse because the movie needed a lot more plot attention.

As I watched the movie, I kept thinking it was being sold to me on movie and concept alone. There was a thought that perhaps went around saying that Cera should try something different and "wouldnt it be funny if he did everything he normally wouldn't." So you have the same character you have seen a lot and you have a character like him, with facial hair, and that talks dirty and breaks things. Combine this with some apparent police issues that come on and off, on and off, and some other things and it is funny BUT only so much.

I'm not saying not to watch the movie. I give it a 3 and that means i liked it BUt that I liked it to a point. It is a flawed movie and, in the supposedly lightheartedness of the film, it gets a bit boring. He can have her, he can't have her, he doesn't know what to do - that stuff hurts the film and only makes me saw "watch it" and nothing more.