SnoopyStyle
Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is a 16 year old virgin living in Oakland with his divorced mother Estelle (Jean Smart) and her lying trucker boyfriend Jerry (Zach Galifianakis). They run off to camp in Ukiah to escape the 3 sailors that Jerry sold a lemon car to. Nick is hopeless with girls and falls for the flirtatious Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday). Her brother Paul (Justin Long) is a slacker druggie type. Nick moves back to Oakland. Jerry dies. Nick has to figure out how to go back to Ukiah. He has to help his jobless father George (Steve Buscemi) get a job in Ukiah and get his mother to throw him out despite her need for the child support money. He creates an alternate personality Francois Dillinger to make life difficult for his mother and her new police boyfriend Lance Wescott (Ray Liotta). Sheeni finds a job for George with her boyfriend Trent's father. It's general mayhem as Francois has his way and causes massive destruction. Estelle sends him away to George and his girlfriend Lacey (Ari Graynor) to hide from the police investigation. Sheeni is send away by her religious parents (M. Emmet Walsh, Mary Kay Place) to a french boarding school to keep her away from the wild Nick.Michael Cera is getting a little too old to play the awkward 16 year old. It would have been funnier if he's an older 18 year old. At least it would be more pathetic. The movie is undeniable quirky. Evil Michael Cera is very disorienting at first, but he becomes one of the reasons to watch this. It's weird and fascinating. I wish that Jerry doesn't die and Zach Galifianakis could have a few more scenes. There is a general continuous rotation of characters in this movie as new people keeps showing up. This is more quirky than funny.
canadian58
Michael Cera is a great actor, and this movie is no different. Youth in Revolt is more subtle than you would think, given the title and premise. Nick is a 16 year old with not many friends, a screwed up family, and worst of all, he is a virgin. Upon meeting Sheeni, he falls in love with her instantly, and will do anything to be with her. This involves creating an alter ego, and becoming an outlaw.My only real complaint is that it seemed to me that they put just enough F-words in this to get it rated R. The swearing could have been cut down to make this PG-13, to appeal to a broader audience.This is a simple teen comedy, but adults will like it too, it's very well written with a good plot, good actors that fit their characters, and plenty of laughs. Check it out, you won't regret it.
Reise Jackson
This film has VERY dry humor, i think that's the main reason why people have rated the film pretty low. I love dry humor, they for me are the best kind of films but i must admit the first time i watched this i wasn't really a huge fan, i got kind of bored and it didn't really make me laugh but after seeing it a few more times on TV i have really come around to the film and its defiantly one i would recommend to anyone who likes a funny/dorky/teen film. cera is one of the best but unappreciated actors around right now, he has made soooo many amazing films the last few years like superbad,scott pilgrim and juno. he in my eyes is the modern day jason biggs and definitively has an amazing future.what makes the film so excellent is the strangeness of cera's double role play between the main character nick and his darker side francois (who has a mustache btw) it follows a story about a guy trying to get a girl which everyone can relate to but it also follow a bad home life and how he deals with both of these things. just watch this film people, trust me you will not be let down.
jotix100
Nick Twisp is a rarity among his peers. He might appear to be a nerd, but it is refreshing that he shows an interest for art films, especially French movies, past, or present. He sticks out like a sore thumb among the people in his class. Secretly, he pines for the one girl that he might not even have a chance to make it: Sheeny, the great looking young woman. To his amazement, Cheeney happens to like the same things as Nick, which goes to show the luck of some guys like Nick.Nick comes from a broken home. Her mother, Estelle, is living with Jerry, a man much younger than her, when we first meet her. Nick's father, George, is a loser. He is also presently involved with a bimbo and who knows her reasons for staying with the man. Nick wants Sheeny in the worst way. Her upright religious parents are not exactly elated when they find out their daughter shows an interest in Nick.When Shenny decides to go to an all French school, Nick is crushed. He has to find a way to prevent that to happen, but instead, he gets involved in a horrible situation that ends up in a small tragedy when through his actions, a fire is started in a central property in town, with the loss of several million dollars, but with the help Lance, the policeman sent over to interview him, he gets away with being arrested as the cop and Estelle become romantically involved.Nick's way to cope with his situation is to try to do everything possible to get Shenny get back to his town, but his strategy backfires when his alter ego, who is just the opposite of him, decides to play a couple of tricks that result in Sheeny being expelled from the tony school.Directed by Miguel Arteta, the man behind "The Good Girl", and "Cedar Rapids", he takes a different approach in how to stage a film that is basically targeted for a younger audience. The film is based on a novel by C.D. Payne we have not read and the screen adaptation was written by Gustin Nash with amazing results. Mr. Arteta succeeds in presenting Nick, a young man who in other director's hands would have been made into a caricature, and here he is given some dignity in the way he comes out on the screen. Michael Cera is a personable actor who has been involved in some good films, "Juno" among them, showing a range in his acting. Above all, he is never obnoxious, or in your face kind of person in any of the things we have watched him do. He is asked to play his normal self and his sophisticated, and more mature alter ego, Francois Dillinger, alternating easily between the roles.His main interest is Portia Doubleday, a new face in movies targeted for a young audience. Also in the cast, veterans Jean Marsh, Ray Liotta, Mary Kay Place, M. Emmett Walsh, Fred Willard, Zach Galifianakis and Steve Buscemi, who has nothing to do in the film. The film is light and must be seen for what it is so it will be enjoyed by its own merits.
