Youth in Revolt (2009)

Directed by: Miguel Arteta | 90 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Jean Smart, Zach Galifianakis, Erik Knudsen, Adhir Kalyan, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, Ari Graynor, Ray Liotta, Justin Long, Rooney Mara, Jade Fusco, Lise Lacasse, M. Emmet Walsh

The principle is simple: an intelligent but insecure adolescent young man, unsurprisingly, is still a virgin. In a dryly comic voice-over, his desperate mother, silly friends and himself are extensively discussed. We follow him on his way to that one memorable moment: his defloration. Sounds familiar? Of course. ‘Youth in Revolt’ is a so-called Coming of age comedy that deals with all the fixed themes, without really surprising.

Nick Twist (Michael Cera) is one of those guys who listens to Frank Sinatra and who is totally misunderstood in the American suburb where he lives. When he goes to a trailer park with his mother and friend for a week, something happens that Nick could never have foreseen. He meets a girl: Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday). She is beautiful, intelligent and likes exciting French men. To impress his lover, Nick creates an alter ego: Francois Dillinger. A Frenchie from the book: white pants, mustache and with a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. While Nick waits, Francois takes matters into his own hands. To prove his love for Sheeni, Nick does things at Francois’s advice that he might never do otherwise. For in love and war everything is allowed.

It is no longer news that in American films the actors are usually years older than they play. Michael Cera himself is well into his twenties, but because of his wimpy appearance, he still plays sixteen-year-old boys. He must quickly change his career, because in three years no one will believe it anymore. The cast is basically good. None other than Ray Liotta plays an authoritarian police officer and Steve Buscemi has a small role as his father and the fat (Zach Galifianakis) from ‘The Hangover’ can be seen as his mother’s unsympathetic friend. But ‘Youth in Revolt’ does not really convince despite these resounding names.

There are jokes to laugh at, the situations are fun, but it’s not surprising enough. It is quite funny to create an alter ego and do things that are actually not allowed, but Nick is not really rebellious, he just wants to lose his virginity. The ending of the film is guessable, and makes the film even less surprising than it already was. ‘Youth in Revolt’ lacks a good dose of reality to really become recognizable. These kinds of Coming of age films have the side effect of having a very limited shelf life. There are so many adolescent films with humiliating sexual feelings and defloration as a central theme, that more is needed if you want to remember this film in five years’ time. A movie like this is pretty fun when you’re still sixteen, but ‘Youth in Revolt’ doesn’t have enough substance or sex to stand the test of time.