Actor Michael Cera has become the go-to guy in Hollywood for undersexed teen roles.  He’s the current generation’s Anthony Michael Hall.  He also always seems to be the good guy, the one you want to root for.  While the same can be said of his character in Youth in Revolt, Cera also gets a chance to showcase his nastier side.  In a sense, he gets to play both the angel and the devil sitting on his shoulders.

Based on the series of novels by C.D. Payne, Youth in Revolt tells the story of Nick Twisp, a teenager who represents all teenagers who think sex with a girl is life’s ultimate goal.  A remnant of a broken home, Nick is currently living with his mother and her trucker boyfriend Jerry.  When Jerry needs to escape from some angry sailors, the three of them pack up and go off to live in Jerry’s crumbling trailer.  While in the trailer camp, Nick meets the girl of his dreams, Sheeni Saunders.  Just when he thinks his dreams are about to come true, however, Jerry decides it is safe for them to return home.

Nick and Sheeni have a plan, though.  Sheeni will make sure Nick’s unemployed father gets a job near her and Nick will make sure to get kicked out of his mom’s house and sent to live with his father.  The only problem is that Nick is too good of a guy to ever disobey his mom.  To solve this problem he invents a second personality, the dastardly smooth Francois Dillinger.  Chaos ensues.

Youth in Revolt is a lot of fun.  The script by Gustin Nash is filled with lots of cleverly fun dialogue and some unexpected gags.  The dialogue seems perfectly tailored for Cera, who always seems to have more of a common-sense perspective than the rest of the characters in most of his films.  He also looks like he is having fun playing Francois, with his pencil-thin mustache and steadily-burning cigarette.  Both characters are blended onto the screen together nicely and some of my favorite moments come when Nick feels he has to apologize for Francois, or ask permission to do what Francois plans to do anyway.

Cera’s dual personalities are surrounded by a terrific supporting cast that includes Zach Galifianakis as Jerry, Steve Buscemi as his father, and Fred Willard as his political activist neighbor.  Justin Long even takes a break from his Mac commercials to basically spend this whole movie high on something.  He plays the brother of Sheeni, who is played delightfully by newcomer Portia Doubleday.

The story doesn’t move as quickly as maybe it should to keep the gags rolling, and the setup drags on for a bit too long, but Cera’s Nick Twisp is one of those characters you just can’t help but root for and that keeps the movie going.  Although this will unlikely end up being one of my favorite comedies of the year, I enjoyed it enough that I look forward to further adaptations of Payne’s book series… just as long as they remember to keep casting the likable Cera.

Youth in Revolt is rated R for “sexual content, language and drug use.”  The R rating is appropriate, especially for the drug use and some very shocking sexual content.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Youth in Revolt.