Directed By Miguel Arteta
SYNOPSIS
All teen Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) wants is to get laid. When his mother's boyfriend (Zack Galifianakis) gets into trouble the three of them hide out in a trailer park. There, Nick meets Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) and falls in love. His family soon leaves and Nick must find a way to get back to be with the girl he loves. After committing arson and getting Sheeni kicked out of a prestigious school, Nick must now avoid the cops and convince Sheeni he's the guy for her.
C.D. Payne's novel Youth In Revolt is probably the funniest novel I've ever read, so going into the film adaptation I was expecting a lot. There was far too much going on in the novel to fully translate into a film without a chainsaw being taken to the text. And it was.
The film works as a sort-of Cliffs Notes version of the book. Several memorable set-pieces and characters are severely trimmed down or cut completely to fit space of the film, leaving a hollow shell of what was, yet the highlights are strong enough to tell a decent story.
Youth would have worked perfectly as a mini-series. At one time, MTV was trying to develop one that never came to be. To fit as a feature film, too much had to be sacrificed to tell a truly hilarious and memorable story. This 'butchered' version of Youth In Revolt is merely OK. There are several laugh-out-loud moments, but were FAR more hilarious in the book.
Payne's novel followed a daily journal format, which is abandoned for the film. This loses a sense of immediacy and an understanding of the real working of Nick's brain, which made him seem far more real on the written page.
The film, however, was perfectly cast. Michael Cera was born to play Nick and his alter ego, Francois Dillinger. Nick is the same impish socially awkward type that Cera has been playing since Arrested Development. Francois represents something completely different. He's dangerous and conniving and the complete opposite of Nick. Cera is able to show far more range than he's be allowed to in other films. It would have been nice to see more of Francois, but much was lost in translation to the screen.
The rest of the all-star cast, including Fred Willard, Steve Buscemi, and Jean Smart provide solid and often hilarious support, but their truncated parts left me pining for the book.
Without reading the book I would have found it hard to connect with the oddball characters and likely hated the film, but reading it allowed me to somewhat appreciate the film, and yet watching the film made me want to go back and read the book again instead.
the book:
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