Get That Kid Off My Ice You Little Wankers!

Youth in Revolt (2010)

Rating ... C- (32)

What happens when you try to bridge the chasm between Hollywood and indie quirk? If Youth is any indication, you fall in. Michael Cera plays a frustrated chump in high school who bemoans his inability to get laid. He doesn't understand female behavior nor does he exhibit any desire to educate himself ... but at least he's really bitter about it!

The first part of the film is meant to demonstrate that Cera is packing all the wrong moves. He tries to hit on a girl in his class who's visiting a video rental store with her boyfriend. Her shield incapacitates him in a single line and all he can do is flaunt his hipster cred by bashing her broad tastes and asserting his Fellini pedigree. He needs a big push from the writer, which he receives when his white trash mom and her law-breaking boyfriend skip town. The whole family heads north and upon arrival a brazen young woman forces herself into his presence, causing him to become even more flustered than usual. Cera stumbles over his own words because he's timid and inarticulate. He fails the "I have a boyfriend" test with flying colors and makes up a clearly specious story about his own foreign, glamour model girlfriend in return because he's thin-skinned and bitter about her rejection. Thanks to navel-gazing the conversation improbably turns to film again and he describes a Tokyo Story as a favorite, claiming it was directed by Mizoguchi before she corrects him with Ozu. He swiftly changes the subject because it's difficult to talk about film when one's interest in the subject is not genuine, but rather stems from a desire to appear intellectual and possessing of good taste. (More proof of hipster - the girl recites Cera some sort of odd poetry written by her boyfriend. The content is inscrutable, but whereas an interested person would ask "what does it mean?" he simply muses "Oh... that's a poem...") Sadly, the worst offense may be revealed in a profile shot of the two in a restaurant booth that unintentionally shows that her upper arms actually have more muscle than his.

Despite all of this, the girl is attracted to Cera, and her innuendo is unmistakable. He scrambles to comply with her request to apply sunscreen as if to show off his desperation. Nevertheless, their cringe-worthy fling comes to an end and he pleads for its continuation. Cera hatches plans that will enable him to stay: she must find a job for his father, then he can move in with his father if he annoys his mother enough - hence the title. Cera arrives home thoroughly enamored, an obedient puppy dog to his new goddess-on-high girlfriend - an idea made literal by the pet dog the two acquire just before parting. At this point Cera develops an alpha alter ego to get all the revolting done.

From here the film becomes conventional. Cera occupies the male role of "go to absurd lengths to be even the least bit worthy of worshipping the ground she walks on." It is noteworthy that much of Cera's success stems from the guidance of his alpha ego. This conceit is far and away the most interesting aspect of Youth but the director allows interaction between both Ceras to become diluted with irrelevant, unfunny sideshow attractions including the girl's religious parents and pothead brother, Cera's immigrant-housing neighbor, Cera's even-more-beta best friend, and his rather nondescript father played by Steve Buscemi. It is difficult to tell how Cera's personality changes as a result of the competition between his alpha and beta selves. At the end Cera declares that it turns out to get the girl "being [myself] was good enough" - it's a proverbial trope but, despite being uttered in voiceover, it is clearly not what took place. A film about personality change that can't set forth simple before and after, Youth in Revolt instead marries indie-stutter dialogue with to the Hollywood template of men groveling at women's feet. The desperate and needy Cera pulls out all the stops and travels the country to win over a girl with options; too bad in reality, it just makes you look desperate and needy.