Youth in Revolt (2009)

This entertaining fluff, according to Anthony Lane in The New Yorker, "for the umpteenth time, is the tale of a nerd who wants to get laid." Based on the novel Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp by C. D. Payne, this stars Michael Cera (see Paper Heart for my faves) whose Nick invents a doppelganger, François Dillinger, who is supposed to be dangerous and macho but is, to my mind, not macho. Sometimes the two of them are in the frame together, sometimes not. There have been detractors and fans. One of the former said, "How can a 90 minute movie seem to drag?" One of the latter was Peter Travers in Rolling Stone, though I don't know why he wrote such good things and only gave it 2½ stars out of 4. Director Miguel Arteta has also been recognized for the stalker comedy Chuck & Buck (2000), which I meant to see, and the Jennifer Aniston starrer The Good Girl (2002), which was okay, both of which were written by actor Mike White. This one was adapted from the novel by Gustin Nash, whose script for Charlie Bartlett (2007) I liked a lot.

Youth in Revolt has a bunch of famous funny co-stars in smallish parts that contribute much to the final product: Jean Smart, Zach Galifianakis, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, Ray Liotta, Justin Long, M. Emmet Walsh, Mary Kay Place, and some not-so-famous: co-star Portia Doubleday, who is quite cute, and Adhir Kalyan, who was in the TV show Aliens in America and is good with accents and other languages. The songs are listed on a blog called The Playlist. It's supposed to take place in Oakland, Berkeley, and Ukiah, California, but it was actually shot in various Michigan locations plus some reshoots in Shreveport, Louisiana. Like Paper Heart, there are some unexpected animation sequences, which are delightful. In the novel Nick is 14, but he's a little older here and this movie is certainly not for kids, containing graphic discussions and illustrations of sex. Though Amy said it was "just a series of random funny scenes," all three of us laughed a lot and enjoyed it: a lightweight diverting hour and a half for those of voting age and above.