I have a new favorite movie of the year, and it is Youth in Revolt. I’m really surprised that Youth in Revolt didn’t do better both financially and with critics. I thought this movie was hilarious and would label it a must-see. It is the story of Nick Twisp, a nice guy who can’t get the girl. Nick, played by Michael Cera, invents a new personality for himself named Francois Dillinger. Francois is everything that Nick isn’t, namely cool and more aggressive. He’s like a teenage Tyler Durden, compsenating for Nick’s shortcomings, sometimes to extremes.
Francois makes me almost want to reverse my stance on moustaches.
Francois does such a good job of transforming Nick that I wouldn’t be surprised if skinny white pants and pencil thin moustaches become the standard look for nerds trying to make a stand. At least it’s a better look than modeling yourself after Napoleon Dynamite. If you’ve got $800 to spare and a yearning to really wear Michael Cera’s clothes, you can buy the whole Francois outfit package here. But you could probably also by the same outfit for 1/10 that price at H&M too.
The new look for bad boy nerds?
I think that Youth in Revolt will be remembered as the movie where Michael Cera stopped being so Michael Cera-like. There’s plenty of Michael Cera being Michael Cera for anyone who can’t enough of Michael Cera’s trademark awkwardness. Nick Twisp is basically George Michael Bluth or Paulie Bleeker. But Francois Dillinger definitely isn’t. He’s something new, and if you’ve grown a little tired of Michael Cera being Michael Cera, this is definitely worth seeing.
I was really happy to see Adhir Kalyan show up, playing Nick’s school friend Vijay Joshi. I was fan of his short lived TV series Aliens in America, so it was cool to see him here. In their first scene together, Nick and Vijay don’t look too dissimilar from Justin and Raj from Aliens in America, except Justin never had a Francois Dillinger and Vijay isn’t quite as pure as Raj.
I miss this show.
Jean Smart is really carving a place for herself as the go to actress for white trash moms. Her role as Nick’s mother Michelle is almost identical to her role as Mark’s mom in Garden State. I half expected Jim Parsons to show up in a full suit of armor because her two roles were so similar.
The worst part of Youth in Revolt was the previews beforehand. Wow, there are some seriously bad looking movies making their way to a theater near you in the near future. The previews were so bad that I started being worried about the movie I was about to see. Most of them were unmemorable, with the exception of Repo, whose preview was too bad to forget. I seriously doubt I’ll be writing about that movie this year.
I saw Youth in Revolt at the Regal Cinemas Union Square 14. A note to the frugal, on Mondays all candy is only $1 and if you buy a large soda anytime, you can get free refills. Another note to the frugal, movies here are $12.50, which might kill your candy and soda budget.
Have you seen a good movie lately? Hit me up with the title, because the pickings look pretty slim right now. My plan is to see the An Education this coming week and maybe The Hurt Locker the following week. But after that? Hopefully not Repo.
I went right out (well, to Amazon) and bought the album “The Coast is Never Clear” [and two others] by Beulah, which includes the song that plays over the closing credits, and listened to them many, many times over the weekend. Very, very good.
With the movie itself, my big question going in was, “can Michael Cera actually act?” Thankfully, the answer is yes; Francois kicked ass. And I found it hilarious that in his first non-Michael Cera role, he gets to act along Michael Cera to ease the transition.
I was afraid early on that this was going to be an over-the-top awkwardfest, Trying Too Hard to be a Wes Anderson movie; luckily, it abandoned some awkward for silly and turned into a good movie. Then it started to go over the top with his mischief, and I got worried again, but it ended up a great movie. I can’t decide whether it ranks ahead of or behind Fantastic Mr. Fox, but somehow it grew on me all weekend, so maybe it’s my #1 so far.
Pinkies out!!
I hadn’t heard of this movie before, but it looks like we’d enjoy it. We’re gonna check it out.