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Review: Youth In Revolt

Michael Cera hardly revolutionary
By PETER KEOUGH  |  January 6, 2010
1.0 1.0 Stars

 

Juno continues to poison American independent cinema. The first symptom of this in Miguel Arteta's adaptation of C.D. Payne's novel is Michael Cera, who once again plays a role he will never outgrow: a virginal, pallid dork with a kooky name (Nick Twisp) who drones on with a coy, unclever voiceover narration. (Those who require further evidence might note that he starts off the movie by masturbating.)

Twisp, like Juno, excels at pseudo-erudition. But his family situation sucks — he lives with his trailer-trash divorced mom and her redneck, meth-snorting boyfriend.

To escape this malaise, he invents an alter ego, François, who's like a bad imitation of Sacha Baron Cohen in Talladega Nights. Then he meets a girl (Portia Doubleday), and the filmmakers try really hard to be hip and inventive but aren't. Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, and M. Emmet Walsh are among the indie casualties.

Related: Review: Daybreakers, Review: Skin, Review: Leap Year, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Entertainment, M. Emmet Walsh,  More more >
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