Youth in Revolt (starring Michael Cera)

[Watson]

First pic and a brief description can be found here -->http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/winter_preview/winter_preview_2009_the_game_o.php

It comes out February 20th in the US and Canada on limited release. No trailer yet. It's based on a crazy f'd up book which I can only describe as Adrian Mole if it had been written by David Lynch. Check out the book description.

Spoiler

The book's protagonist is Nicholas "Nick" Twisp, a young boy of above-average intelligence going through puberty. He is naturally obsessed with girls and sex but has had little experience with either. His life continues like a normal teenager's with his best friend Leroy, a.k.a. Lefty, and his divorced parents. His mother is dating a truck driver named Jerry, who sells a group of sailors a Chevy Nova that dies soon after the sailors get it. In response, the sailors go for revenge. After outsmarting them, Jerry strategically decides to take a vacation, so they all go to a religious mobile home camp.


It is there that Nick meets Sheridan "Sheeni" Saunders and his life is turned completely upside down. Through plots to get Sheeni closer to him he ends up with several crimes on his hands and is forced to run from the cops. He tricks everyone into thinking he went to India, thereby escaping the police. Nick hides out with his sister and returns with help from his friend in Ukiah, Frank "Fuzzy" DeFalco. He dresses in Fuzzy's late grandmother's clothes, adopting the name Carlotta and a conservative disposition, so that Nick may enter the public. As he does so, he befriends Sheeni and several other people who Nick knew before. While spending the night with Sheeni on Christmas Eve, she reveals to him that she knows it is him, not Carlotta. He then gets "the best Christmas present a boy could receive," starting a secret relationship with Sheeni.


Faced with homelessness from the loss of the house he had been squatting in, he becomes rich beyond belief when an idea of his, a wart watch, makes it big. His wealth grows further when an elderly neighbor of his Nick's older sister takes a liking to Nick and decides to put him in her will. When she dies Nick is briefly left half a million dollars richer, until his mother's boyfriend, a somewhat corrupt cop, seizes the money.

This should be interesting. For Cera this is a new role, as Nick Twisp is definitely far more schemeing and sinister than any other character he's ever played. And Buscemi playing his father is pretty genius

 

[PWN3R]

The trailer just hit and two things immediately shocked me:

1) This looks really ****ing funny, not to mention dark.

2) Michael Cera isn't just playing Michael Cera.

I like.

Trailer: Here

 

[Brian2887]

I couldn't stop laughing when the car hit the water and the cop looked up. Wow.

 

[Watson]

The trailer just hit and two things immediately shocked me:

1) This looks really ****ing funny, not to mention dark.

2) Michael Cera isn't just playing Michael Cera.

I like.

Trailer: Here

I have to agree. This may be one of those rare cases where I like the film more than the book. Since I absolutely f***ing hated the book.

 

[darkseid26]

this looks good

 

[Motown Marvel]

ha, they filmed some of this at my friends house two streets over. i remember walking past it on the way to work to see Cera playing frisbee out in the street.

 

[nite-owl]

Looks meh. I only liked Cera in Arrested Development, even he's playing his 'alter ego' Cera seems to be playing himself again.

 

[Hunter Rider]

The car gag is gold. t:

 

[KenK]

Actually saw the film a few weeks ago at a free screening. It is hilarious, but it's one of those films that honestly more funny in spite of itself than anything. The story and the narrative structure are noticeably flawed.

 

[Nivek]

This doesn't seem all that interesting to me, Michael Cera just seems so... dull.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

The thing is, the other Cera is supposed to be his alter ego.

It's the exact same crap but only this time, he has a terrible mustache.

 

[KenK]

The thing is, the other Cera is supposed to be his alter ego.

It's the exact same crap but only this time, he has a terrible mustache.

I don't really agree with the assessment of him just doing what he always does but he just has a moustache. He's genuinely acting differently than he does in any other movie you've seen him in. The way he talks and moves and acts, it's with a stroke of self-assurance and indignant swagger that, even if it is played for laughs, is very different than his actual character in the film. It's meant to be cheesy, but the way he loses himselve in that cheesiness is a step forward for him as an actor. THere's the indication that with real guidance by the right filmmaker, he can play a more varied character than what we're used to.

The problem with the film in general is that for one, the girl in question doesn't really seem worth going through all the trouble he goes through. Not that she's a bad person, but dammit if she isn't a bit of a c**ktease. It would actually have been better if she didn't think of him in any romantic capacity at all UNTIL he comes up with Francoise Dillinger, as the trailer and commercials would have you believe. But instead, the fact that she insists Cera's character Nick "be bad" is WORSE because she already likes Nick AS HIMSELF!!!

Beyond that, they treat Francoise like a dissociative personality that psychologically takes over for Nick, when he's actually conscious of EVERYTHING THAT HE'S DOING, OR IS DONE TO HIM!!! There's a scene where Nick is beaten with a belt, but Francoise is supposedly taking over, the implication being that Nick is unaware of the pain his body is feeling. And in another scene, Nick is offered psychadelic shrooms, warned that he shouldn't eat anymore than two, and Francoise forces him to eat half a sandwich bag's worth. Nick is NOT Edward Norton from Fight Club. Nick is NOT crazy. If he's supposed to be, the film does a sh**y job of illustrating that. Even if he was, that would mean that Nick subconsciously created Francoise for the sole purpose of helping him get p***y, which would be profoundly ******ed.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

So....this is basically a hipsters Fight Club....???

 

[Dr. Evil]

I might watch this movie this weekend. I'll be interested to see how this turns out.

 

[Bunker]

I think I'm pretty much the only person on earth who still likes Michael Cera. This looks hilarious.