"Youth in Revolt" is a fairly amusing comedy starring Michael Cera as Nick Twisp, a shy, socially inept teenager who falls in love with Sheeni, a girl he meets whilst on a camping trip.
The film's narrative is a twist on your typical "nice guys finish last" tale, Twisp realising that he must literally reinvent himself as a rebellious "bad boy" in order to win Sheeni's love. And so Twisp creates an alter ego called Francois Dillinger – the name a play on both outlaw John Dillinger and Jean Luc Godard anti-heros – and sets about committing various crimes and questionable acts. Cue much hilarity.
It's a good idea for a film, but as most romantic comedies actually feature the "nice guy winning", and as "Youth in Revolt" ends with both Sheeni and Twisp realising that "bad boys" aren't what they're looking for, the film's narrative arc seems strangely pointless. It's formulaic rather than daring.
The film does one interesting thing, though. Sheeni comes from a repressive suburban home, her family a pair of ultra right wing Christians. This results in Sheeni and her siblings "revolting" against their fundamentalist parents by smoking pot and immersing themselves in Parisian fantasies, sex, New Wave cinema and Serge Gainsbourg records. Meanwhile, Nick's case is the opposite. His household is populated by potheads, slackers, sex monkeys and bums, whom Nick "revolts" against by immersing himself in mellow, hipster affections (50s Frank Sinatra, classic films, books etc). Later he will embody Jean Paul Belmondo's Michael in Godard's "A Bout De Soufflé". So the film essentially has ultra right-wing conservatism/authoritarianism breeding an extrovert and ultra lax, liberalism/uninhibitedness breeding an introvert. Sheeni then unwittingly becomes her parents, trying to change and force an image up Nick, which of course backfires spectacularly. Lesson? People always define themselves in opposition to something, and forcing others often reinforces behaviour rather than instigating changes.
The film was directed by Miguel Arteta, who specilizes in pretty good black comedies. The majority of his films see characters trying and failing to break free of "who they are", be they Mexican kids trying to escape poverty ("Star Maps"), infantalized gay artists trying to grow up and/or turn straight ("Chuck and Buck"), frumpy cashiers trying to escape stagnated marriages ("The Good Girl"), or introverted insurance agents ("Cedar Rapids") wrestling with personal growth. Your classic Arteta character is caught between personal desires and socio-genetic hard-coding. As he becomes more mainstream/successful, Arteta's tales of personal growth become less pessimistic, his characters fates and personalities no longer fixed, or even contingent, but subordinate to old fashioned Hollywood wish fulfilment.
7.9/10 – Needs more jokes. Worth on viewing.
The film's narrative is a twist on your typical "nice guys finish last" tale, Twisp realising that he must literally reinvent himself as a rebellious "bad boy" in order to win Sheeni's love. And so Twisp creates an alter ego called Francois Dillinger – the name a play on both outlaw John Dillinger and Jean Luc Godard anti-heros – and sets about committing various crimes and questionable acts. Cue much hilarity.
It's a good idea for a film, but as most romantic comedies actually feature the "nice guy winning", and as "Youth in Revolt" ends with both Sheeni and Twisp realising that "bad boys" aren't what they're looking for, the film's narrative arc seems strangely pointless. It's formulaic rather than daring.
The film does one interesting thing, though. Sheeni comes from a repressive suburban home, her family a pair of ultra right wing Christians. This results in Sheeni and her siblings "revolting" against their fundamentalist parents by smoking pot and immersing themselves in Parisian fantasies, sex, New Wave cinema and Serge Gainsbourg records. Meanwhile, Nick's case is the opposite. His household is populated by potheads, slackers, sex monkeys and bums, whom Nick "revolts" against by immersing himself in mellow, hipster affections (50s Frank Sinatra, classic films, books etc). Later he will embody Jean Paul Belmondo's Michael in Godard's "A Bout De Soufflé". So the film essentially has ultra right-wing conservatism/authoritarianism breeding an extrovert and ultra lax, liberalism/uninhibitedness breeding an introvert. Sheeni then unwittingly becomes her parents, trying to change and force an image up Nick, which of course backfires spectacularly. Lesson? People always define themselves in opposition to something, and forcing others often reinforces behaviour rather than instigating changes.
The film was directed by Miguel Arteta, who specilizes in pretty good black comedies. The majority of his films see characters trying and failing to break free of "who they are", be they Mexican kids trying to escape poverty ("Star Maps"), infantalized gay artists trying to grow up and/or turn straight ("Chuck and Buck"), frumpy cashiers trying to escape stagnated marriages ("The Good Girl"), or introverted insurance agents ("Cedar Rapids") wrestling with personal growth. Your classic Arteta character is caught between personal desires and socio-genetic hard-coding. As he becomes more mainstream/successful, Arteta's tales of personal growth become less pessimistic, his characters fates and personalities no longer fixed, or even contingent, but subordinate to old fashioned Hollywood wish fulfilment.
7.9/10 – Needs more jokes. Worth on viewing.