REVIEW: Spirit of John Hughes Returns With ‘Youth In Revolt’
by Carl KozlowskiSome actors get famous for playing one unique type of character – Sylvester Stallone will always be the monosyllabic tough guy, while Hugh Grant is the highly sensitive yet adorable British twit. And Michael Cera has made a name for himself as the ultimate high school nerd, awkwardly mumbling his way through one teen movie after another.
If there was ever a need for a young actor to reinvent his image, it’s Cera – for the persona he’s been stuck in is so passive his characters barely seem to exist. He takes a big, bold and highly entertaining step in that direction with the new comedy “Youth in Revolt,” based on a novel by a writer named C.D. Payne that’s become a cult sensation since its publication in 1993 and has confounded filmmakers ever since.
The reason why the novel has been so hard to adapt is two-fold: the book is a gigantic, 500-page tome written in the form of a journal composed by a fictional high-school student named Nick Twisp, and it’s packed with his randy sexual fantasies and frustrations. But screenwriter Gustin Nash and director Miguel Arteta (“The Good Girl”) have solved the problem in astute fashion: cutting down the frequency of the sexual material resulting in a 90-minute confection that’s still risque enough to be rated-R without being overly offensive. “Youth in Revolt” stands up well against the classic canon of the late great John Hughes’ ’80s teen films.
“Youth” follows the tale of Twisp as he expresses his frustrations with trying to lose his virginity. He’s incredibly awkward in normal teenage situations, yet has his own highly honed sense of taste with a particular fascination for French New Wave films and Frank Sinatra on vinyl. One summer weekend, while trapped with his zany cougar of a mom (a hilarious Jean Smart) and her bizarre loser boyfriend (Zach Galifianakis, the bearded bizarre loser from “The Hangover”) for a weekend at a dilapidated lake resort, he meets the girl of his dreams, Sheeni Saunders (Portian Doubleday in a terrifically sexy yet sweet film debut).
Sheeni is not only hot, but shares Nick’s affinity for esoteric arts and a zesty way with the clever kind of dialogue that “Dawson’s Creek” put in vogue. They fall for each other instantly, which is completely baffling to Nick, but her fundamentalist Christian parents keep magically appearing whenever Nick is about to reach the promised land. When Nick’s mom decides to go back home abruptly, Nick’s afraid he’ll lose his chance at not only sex but true love (he immediately proposes that Sherri run away with him and start an artistic new life jet-setting around the world) – so Sherri tells him “Be bad. Be very very bad,” so that his mom will dump him off on his father (Steve Buscemi), who’s about to move to Sherri’s small town with his bimbo girlfriend.
That’s when Nick invents his alter ego, a French badass with a pretentious mustache named Francois. Much like the cartoon devils that once rested on the shoulders of Loony Tunes characters encouraging them to do the wrong thing, Francois becomes the voice of absolutely no reason at all – pushing Nick to vandalize, steal, blow stuff up, and ultimately raid Sheeni’s girls-school campus in his quest for both sex and love.
“Youth in Revolt” packs all this and more into a fast-paced yet often touching 90 minutes, with a sterling cast that also includes Ray Liotta and comic legends’ Fred Willard and M. Emmett Walsh. Screenwriter Nash and director Arteta masterfully know when to loosen and tighten the reins in a scene, offsetting the dialogue with just the right touch of sincerity when it’s in danger of being too clever, and letting the occasionally outrageous scenarios leave just enough to the imagination.
Even Sheeni’s parents, who do fit the mold of an endearing caricature, are dealt with in short doses that keeps them from becoming offensive.
Cera rises to the challenge of his dual role, brilliantly balancing his sensitive-loser persona with the anarchic abandon dictated by Francois. Seeing him “blow up half of Berkeley” in one ingenious sequence is a delight that leaves viewers hoping he’ll continue to take chances, breaking out of his career shell with the same zest that Nick learns to break out of his personal rut.
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48 Comments
I will have a hard time seeing Michael Cera as anything but the awkward dork. He does it extremely well, but can he do anything else?
I think he can do other stuff if it's a gradual change, otherwise people aren't going to take it seriously…like that action movie with the kid from 3rd Rock From The Sun. As long as Cera doesn't do that, he'll be alright.
On a side note, I laugh whenever I see the avatar next to your name
He's got talent, but I think you're right. He has to be eased into different roles.
Glad you get a kick out of the avatar, he's in my favorite Simpsons episode…
So it's only a little offensive to Christians and conservatives? Pass, thanks. Maybe Hollywood will someday decide to make movies which don't insult half the country.
You are comparing this movie to the work of John Hughes? Were you drunk when you wrote this article?
Youth in revolt is more like Porky's than any of Hughes' movies. Hughes was honest but not derisive of parents or family.
I like the premise of the movie, but I can't stand Michael Cera. I'll pass
You know, I'm starting to agree with everyone else here. Are there any bad movies in your eyes?
Sure, great- another movie that encourages disrespect for parents and makes parents look like idiots.
Also, promotes that being bad is a good thing.
PASS…..
I'll pass and stick to the classic John Hughes' re-runs. Hughes treated teenagers with respect, humor and compassion. The families may have been at times whacky but they weren't totally dysfunctional slobs. His teenagers had typical adolescent issues and he didn't oversexualize them.
Not meaning to be rude here – but this is the second review here for this movie and really – it is sort of late in coming. This will not be a newsworthy, go-to review if it is posted so late in the game. I already know it bites.
On the sweet but mean side (yes, it exists people!) totally agreed on Cera needing to work on changing his image. (see? Agreed with the pointing guy, but catty towards to weird actor guy).
Thanks for the review, my only problem is that you called Alan in the Hangover a loser.
Carl has given one bad review that I've seen. But I don't remember what it was. So, he's probably not the Harriet Klausner of movie reviewers.
What I see when I look at Carl's reviews is a guy who really loves movies and wants to find something positive to say about all of them. Either that or he wants to get quoted in the ads. It's a toss-up.
Regarding the movie, I think yesterday's review … sorry, I can't remember who did it, scroll down a bit … tells me that this movie is just derivative and not funny enough to forgive it. I'll pass. It takes a lot to get me into the theater rather than waiting for the DVD.
Unless the title of his next movie is called "Arrested Development", I don't care what Cera does.
I guess I'm a little tired of the "nerdy teenager" movies. Every other movie that comes out now is about high school nerds and how "cool" they are.
It's gonna get to the point where we're gonna need a "Revenge of the Jocks" movie.
My guess is someone's getting him a slot over at the Laugh Factory. It's all about mutual back-scratchin', right, Carl?
… a French badass with a pretentious mustache named Francois
My pretentious mustache is named Fernando.
Not likely, though. That demographic has been nutso-Scientology-infused Hollywood’s punching bag for decades and that’s not likely to change. I would have gone to see this if not for that revelation.
That episode's one of the top 20 over on ign.com.
You know the Porky's movies get picked on and yes they were randy, etc. But they both had pretty good underlying stories: the first one they expose a two-faced politician and that was pretty funny ("You can't take a girl's cherry twice!") and the second one exposed racism in a very populist and general way – I would hazard a guess that the majority of Americans dislike racism and racists and would LOVE to have what happened to the ones in Porky's 2 happen in real life.
I will 100% agree, of course, that Hughes was obviously far better than that and cleaner and I love him and will miss him.
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Oh i wish Porvaznik, not there that often and the Laugh Factory is a completely different business than film criticism. I'm so offbase that "Youth" is rated fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which a fair amount of movies aren't. And which producer would be getting me the Factory gigs anyway, numbskull? Ever realize that each movie has its own producer, not one person behind them all? You really are stupid. OH and i got so much Hollywood clout from being one of the 5 or so critics in the country with the guts to call Avatar anti-American crap. Yeah, laughing all the way to the bank with that call.
Hmmm, really? "Youth" has a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so where am i so out of line? and if your mind could take the information in, you might have noticed right below the last two i did trash avatar, nine and the lovely bones all in a row. but reading, that would be too much to ask i guess. just go ahead and agree with everyone else blindly.
yawn…
READ THE THREAD OF REVIEWS UNDER MY NAME AND YOU"LL SEE PLENTY I KNOCKED INCLUDING AVATAR. What the hell is wrong with you people?
Nice Carl– treating regulars to the site and supporters of BH like trolls. Stay classy.
If you're not actually a troll trying to make Carl look bad, then I'd have to ask what the hell is wrong with you? Sensitive much? Or just an a**hole?
Oh, and since you're so fond of Rotten Tomatoes, take a look at "Leap Year" (the last review of yours that got people wondering) it has a 19% fresh rating. Soooo, is Rotten Tomatoes the oracle you want it to be? Can't really have it both ways.
Does the girl have any nude scenes? If not, forget it.
I agree with you, but half the country? Half the country is conservative, while three-quarters of the total claim to be Christian. These dopes think we are the minority in their topsy-turvy, navel-gazing bubble world.
This goes right to my lament, unfortunate and regrettable, that Big Hollywood is all too often indistinguishable from any other prurient, lefty, hedonistic, pop culture site. We're sick of cool, snarky, cynical, anything goes. I come here everyday hoping for something DIFFERENT!
So, come on Breitbart! Come on Nolte! Truly differentiate from the pack that has pulled our pop culture down into the mire.
If one more jamoke compares another prurient puke-fest to a John Hughes film, or another crass filmmaker claims his films are the product of John Hughes' influence I am gonna go postal!
John Hughes was an amazing writer, a genius in fact, who could write a finished screenplay, ready to shoot in a week. And as someone already pointed out, his work demonstrates that he understood the foibles of family life without rejecting it, and he celebrated relationships — between teens (and their sometimes frustrated parents), between adults — not the perversion or denigration of those relationships.
I for one would LOVE to see movies made by those who have been demonstrably influenced by John Hughes. But Judd Apatow, Kevin Smith, and others who claim they have already done so must be smoking something pretty powerful to reflect on their work and suggest there is any common ground between their films and those of John Hughes. Closest I can tell is that they all starred human beings who speak English.
Dammit, SQT, enough with the logic.
Resorting to name-calling (though I do give ya kudos for resurrecting "numbskull," which doesn't get the 21st century play it deserves)? Oy vey.
Sorry about the Laugh Factory thing, though. I got confused. I meant a slot at Right Talk Radio. Mea culpa.
Another liberal and offensive movie Carl Kozlowski likes (as if there were many non-offensive movies)? I Guess this one must be horrible. At least I'll save some grocery money.
Seriously Carl, is there anything you don't like? The last two reviews have been of movies that have had really, really weak reviews elsewhere. Is someone paying you to promote this stuff? I am beginning to wonder.
Yeah, I may be wasting my time.
Great politics here, but horrible movie reviews. Part of the problem is that Big Hollywood is trying to make movies relevant again for conservatives. Problem is, that is so far past possible that the movie reviews are often jokes. I think Big Hollywood in the reviews should recognize what some of the commentary about Hollywood does well to report, Hollywood (including its productions) very well might be past redemption.
A 500 page book is huge now?
The premise for this film is old and tired. Sounds like just another oversexed representation of a teen loser. The goal of the film, namely to bed the "hot girl", isn't very original and frankly I find that alone offensive.
Oh not derisive of family? How about EVERY family member but the dad in "Sixteen Candles?" EVERY ONE!
Chet, the brother in "Weird Science"? Ferris Bueller's parents were sweet, but morons. EVERYONE hated their parents in "Breakfast Club."
Refresh your memory before dishing your insults next time, thanks.
a) if you wanna insult me, at least have the guts to use your own name. If this is your real name or your stage name, then Hmmm certainly have never heard of you in seven years in LA and the Laugh Factory. How someone else would "know" if a comic got their joke wrong is um, impossible, is the word i believe. How about working on your act and earning your own reputation before jealously trolling against others whose hard work and ability has earned them a spot where you'd like to be but apparently can't?
And wrong again, not on Right Talk Radio. LA Talk Radio, and proud of it – nearly 30 shows so far all with major comedy figures (no actors, so no suckup involved in a review or whatever) and political/media figures.
Say hi to your mom on the way to the basement apartment. While you're practicing in the mirror, I'll be at the Jon Lovitz Club Sunday night performing. Ooh, no favors required there either. Drop by if mom lets you borrow the keys to her car.
"Classy?" Really? You come on and blindly follow the insults of others, which don't even make any sense since as i've pointed out, it's abundantly clear i've trashed a number of these films and even my positive ratings often include major problems about the film ("Leap Year" I SAID was cliche, just done WELL; "Couples Retreat" was another on those lines). If you want to rip someone, then be prepared to have a comment back. I'm enjoying the deluded rantings of the once and always anonymous "Porvaznik".
Ok, ok, sorry about the crack about you being drunk.
Maybe I'm just jaded but Hughes' form of derision seems tame to me in comparison to the people in Youth in Revolt.
All of those examples seemed like caricatures of how a teenager perceives adults and competitors not the sneering ridicule with which this film seems to treat families/adults. I suppose it's the adults are :
disfunctional, hypocrites who are too stupid to run their own lives so it's up to the kids to take charge
attitude that ruins it for me.
I dunno it just seems like a Hughes movie would be rated G in comparison to this film.
Oh yeah…..Get off my lawn!
Oh yeah…one more thing.
I insult because I care…and I'm not that bright.
Oh hey just looked you up on the Facebook – sorry Eric! Wow, who woulda thought that someone i've never done a THING to hurt (well, until now, in response, maybe) would attack a fellow conservative comic on a forum like this? But since you wanna go there before i sign off on this thread for good: a) I have real shows at the Laugh Factory, not just ones where i'm invited by a friend because of having the right belief; and b) I have real guests on my radio show,not just fellow ranters. Combined with writing for here in something other than a thread, I guess i can chalk the mockery from you about my act – which at the one show you've seen me at got a standing O on a couple jokes while yours, well, didn't – up to jealousy. And I'm not even famous. Sad.
T'is my real name, Mr. C, and I was playing Right to Laughs long before you. Seems the torch was passed from me to you last July, but that's a booking decision to which only Mr. Sayet knows the clues (apparently I got lazy or my parody songs too convoluted — shrug). As you've apparently forgotten, we spoke after the November show and you were all aflutter as you picked my brain about Right Talk Radio, who had just added Radio Free Threedonia to their roster. You offered to put me on your show for info on also getting in the RTR mix. I said it wasn't my decision, but to drop me a line so I could forward your info to the CEO. Gave ya my card and haven't heard from ya since. I'm guessing you, not I, were in front of the mirror rehearsing because you stammered through so few laughs that night. See, that's how I knew your act — despite a cup-attached cheat sheet — didn't work.
I also don't do pi$$ing contests, as my stage, radio, TV and scant film resume whispers for itself (OK, with Rep. McCotter, Geoff Tate and Jonah Goldberg interviews under our RF3D belts, that equates to talking — couple with Bo "Bald Eagle" Clark, too), but sincere congrats on all you've accomplished. It's a mutha getting anything done in this town due to the (R) bullseyes on our back.
Now go get yer shinebox and a bus token. I'm busy stealing your mom's car for my gig at the Clib Good Hurt. Toodles…
So, let me get this straight. You're supposed to be a comic? And this is how you handle some pretty gentle criticism? You must fall apart when heckled on stage. Where's the wit? Where's the sense of humor? Clearly those are not your strong suits.
If I were lucky enough to be writing for something as high profile as Big Hollywood, and regular readers commented that my reviews weren't coming across as I intended them to, I'd be looking at what I was doing wrong rather than lashing out at everyone else. That's the grown up, professional thing to do. I sure as hell wouldn't automatically resort to name calling. You can continue to insult me. After all, I'm just some someone who blindly follows the herd, right? But I guarantee that isn't going to change the perception readers have of your reviews. And they're going to see how you respond to criticism– and it doesn't reflect well on you at all.
Yup, you're the best, Carl.
How do you type 2 cats fighting?
Reaaoww! Pfft
Take it easy fellows, have some Fig Newtons and settle down! I'm sure everybody is equally funny and smart.
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