Calum Gilchrist
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Review: Youth in Revolt
March 5
As I’ve mentioned before, I seem to have a thing for Michael Cera romance films. Maybe it’s because I can relate to Michael Cera, as all my friends keep saying. There’s just something I enjoy about his performance, although it would be nice to see him playing some different roles in a few different films.
Youth in Revolt was a nice surprise for me. I didn’t really have very high hopes for it and I came out of the cinema quite happy. This is my second time viewing the film and didn’t quite hold up to the first time but I still had a really good time with the film.
The story follows a quiet, polite kid who loves to read and is an aspiring writer. After a while he ends up meeting the girl of his dreams at a trailer park. The rest of the film basically follows his attempts at being a “bad ass” to win the heart of this girl. One such act is blowing up a cafe in his town.
That’s not really a great description of the film, but I thought I’d attempt to anyway. The story elements don’t really matter to me, I just really like all the little events that add to the story. Some of these were incredibly funny, like when a group of sailors take apart and reconstruct a faulty car in Michael Cera’s house, as his step-Dad (played by Zach Galifianakis) sold them it with a banana in the exhaust pipe.
Zach Galifianakis was surprising to see it, as I had seen Hangover just before I saw Youth in Revolt - Hangover was probably the funniest comedy of 2009. I was also surprised to see Justin Long and Steve Buscemi. I love Steve Buscemi and I quite liked his character, even though he didn’t really have that important a role in the film.
One gripe I have is that Michael Cera has a friend who is pining for a girl he’s had a crush on since the 3rd Grade. This fact is forgotten about in the end and the character never really mentioned. It wasn’t important but it felt like he was kind of forgotten about. Apart from that, everything else was pretty great. There are a few scenes that just stick in my mind and I don’t know if I’ll ever forget the line: “I want to tickle your belly button from the inside”.
Youth in Revolt 4/5
