movies
BY MOLLY TEMPLETON
Paulie Gets a Moustache
Michael Cera does Michael Cera — and more
Michael Cera and Portia Doubleday in Youth In Revolt
YOUTH IN REVOLT:
Directed by Miguel
Arteta. Written by Gustin Nash, based on the novel by
C.D. Payne. Cinematography, Chuy Chávez. Editors,
Andy Keir and Pamela Martin. Music, John Swihart.
Starring Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Jean Smart,
Erik Knudsen, Steve Buscemi, Ari Graynor, Fred
Willard, Adhir Kalyan and Justin Long. Dimension
Films, 2010. R. 90 minutes. 44411
T
hat three-star rating is for those of
you who, like me, are still suckers
for the Michael Cera schtick. (It is
also, as star ratings always are, subjective,
fl awed and diffi cult to decide on.) If you
are still a fan of Cera in such wildly diverse
roles as George Michael Bluth (Arrested
Development), Nick (Nick and Norah’s
Infi nite Playlist), Paulie Bleeker (Juno),
Evan (Superbad) and that caveman dude in
Year One, you’re in. His carefully modulated
levels of awkwardness; his slightly stilted
manner of speaking; his wide-eyed ability
to be totally observant and totally clueless
at once; his way of carrying his thin frame
as though it’s taking up more space than it
is — these things must still charm you, or
Youth In Revolt will fall fl at.
To be fair, there is a bit of non Cera-
related fl atness to Revolt, which takes a
thick, madcap, complicated novel and
smooths it into a strangely humble and
mild little comedy in which Cera, as
teenage Nick Twisp, causes a considerable
amount of mayhem in the name of love.
Nick, like all the other good guys in his
world, speaks rather formally, listens to
vinyl and likes classic fi lms and novels.
He’s also deeply concerned with sex (we
meet him in an intimate moment with
himself). Understandably, his very normal,
very divorced parents (Steve Buscemi and
Jean Smart) seem slightly baffl ed as to how
this child is the product of their union.
Circumstances contrive to send
young Nick out of town for a week. At
Restless Axles, a trailer park somewhere
in California, he meets Sheeni Saunders
(Portia Doubleday), who can out-cool him
on topics ranging from foreign directors
to the relative visibility of signs of arousal
in men and women. Sheeni is also the
child of completely inappropriate parents
(religious fundamentalists played by M.
Emmet Walsh and Mary Kay Place). It’s
love. It’s a disaster.
But this disaster is always writ small.
Even a havoc-wreaking explosion comes
off like a really expensive inconvenience
rather than a crrrrazy, yuk-it-up comedy
set piece. Revolt’s rhythms are a little
unnerving at fi rst, and the trailer, as trailers
so often do, misleads audiences into
expecting another kooky teen comedy. This
movie, from The Good Girl director Miguel
Arteta, is a touch more subtle. The same
silly stuff happens — drugs, sex, nudity
(Fred Willard, half naked and tripping, is a
highlight), crime, annoying rivals, parental
involvement, insurmountable obstacles to
true love — but it’s played so straight, it
almost seems realistic. Well, with one key
exception: François Dillinger.
When Sheeni needs uptight, nervous
Nick to rebel, he just can’t. So he creates a
“supplementary persona” in unrestrained,
fearless, possibily dangerous (he even
smokes!) François. As François, Cera
has a different walk, a creepy moustache
and eerie blue contacts; he’s intense and
weird and, playing against Cera-as-Nick,
defi nitely a change of pace for the actor.
It’s not an entirely drastic change, but it’s
evidence that he can do something a little
different after all. Which, for suckers like
me, is all the more reason to like him —
ew
and the movie.
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