Youth in Revolt

I saw Youth in Revolt the other day. About a week ago actually but its taken me ages to write anything on here. I didn't know much about the film when I went to see it. I'd seen a couple trailers and thought it seemed like quite a relaxed choice of film. Could have seen The Road but I wanted to see something that wouldn't effect me in any serious way. So anyway the lead role is played by Michael Cera who is basically the same character he is in all the movies he's in which isn't something that bothers me because I think he's hilarious. If you've seen the trailer or read the book then you'll know that the main plot of the film is that in order to get the girl of his dreams Cera's character Nick Twisp (a nerdy loner) develops an alter ego who is everything Twisp is not. Sheeni Saunders played by Portia Doubleday is said girl. Nick meets Sheeni whilst he is staying on a camp site with his mum and her current boyfriend who is the reason they're at the site laying low because of a dodgy deal he made with some sailors. When Nick sees Sheeni it's love at first sight and she grows close to him over the few days he's there but when he has to go back home he tells her how he feels and how he'd do anything to be with her. To get back to the girl he loves they devise a scheme for him to get sent to his dads which isn't too far from Sheeni's house on the camp site but nerdy Nick Twisp isn't capable of this and so this is where the alter ego comes into it. Francois Dillinger is a figment of Twisp's imagination making him do all the crazy and dangerous things he'd never do. Cera is amazing as Dillinger and really he is the funniest person in the film. Over all I enjoyed this film but there was some things that annoyed me. The first being that besides Cera there wasn't much happening with the other characters. All the actors were good but all the comedy was coming from Cera's two characters which is weird in a film starring Steve Buscemi and Justin Long who didnt really do much. Buscemi was barely in the film to be fair but Justin Long was a bit weird. Playing Sheeni's stoner older brother he was usually just staring into space and talking really slow in this deep voice he seems to have adopted. He also punches Buscemi's character for no reason which isnt funny at all. I think everyone in the cinema was just shocked by that. The second Problem I had with this film is Sheeni. At first you can understand why Nick Twisp would fall for this girl who loves poetry and french cinema and music from the past but later in the film she seems to be creating nothing but trouble in Nicks life and I don't really know why he still wanted to be with her in the end. My last problem was the random animation. Was it needed? I'm not really sure. It didn't seem too much like it was there just to give the film more of an indie, cult, teen film sort of feel but then it made me feel a little like it was. I think since Juno I'm skeptical of purposly indie films like 'Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist' which was just poop. Michael Cera is in all these movies which suggests he is a key tool in the make my teen comedy look like it was made on the cheap by cool people who don't care about mainstream cinema crowds. Besides all this it was really funny and I'll probably get it on DVD when it comes out. Its worth going to the cinema to see this film though it probably isn't being screened anymore. Shoebox87