Youth in Revolt

Based on the first book in C.D. Payne’s six-part series, Youth in Revolt follows precocious teen Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) as he meets (and quickly falls in love with) an enigmatic stranger named Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) – with Nick’s ongoing efforts at cozying up to the object of his affection inevitably complicated by a host of outside forces and figures. Director Miguel Arteta has infused Youth in Revolt with a lighthearted and easygoing sensibility that proves an appropriate complement to Gustin Nash’s quirky screenplay, with the animated credits sequence that opens the movie effectively setting the stage for a consistently off-kilter piece of work. There’s little doubt that Cera’s entertaining, frequently hilarious performance plays a large role in the film’s mild success, as the actor employs his established screen persona – ie the awkward, stammering introvert – to exceedingly positive effect and there’s little doubt that the actor’s tongue-in-cheek delivery results in many of the movie’s biggest laughs (eg “Like John Muir, I enter the woods with nothing more than my journal and a childlike sense of wonder”). And although Arteta’s pervasively low-key modus operandi occasionally dampens the movie’s effectiveness, Youth in Revolt – anchored by the undeniably sweet romance between Cera and Doubleday’s respective characters – ultimately establishes itself as an engaging and faithful adaptation of Payne’s admittedly superior novel.

*** out of ****