Youth in Revolt

It’s another case of “And the geek shall inherit the girl” in a very funny film starring the Juno heart-throb Michael Cera

Just when you thought that the Juno nerd-throb Michael Cera was lacking a certain versatility in his performances, the teen and tween audience’s geek of choice delights in the role of his career so far. Hitherto, Cera’s glassy-eyed shtick and deadpan discomfiture hasn’t been quite enough to conceal that he has the charisma of an understuffed sock puppet. But, in a wickedly witty dual role in the funniest teen flick in a long time, Cera finally seems to loosen up and have some fun.

Youth in Revolt, adapted from a novel by C. D. Payne, is directed by Miguel Arteta, who previously made the brilliant, unsettling comedy of embarrassment Chuck & Buck and cast Jennifer Aniston as a small town sad sack in The Good Girl. Arteta follows a similar career trajectory to Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland), bringing the edgy, indie sensibility he learnt on the low-budget front line to a mainstream teen comedy, with admirable results. Arteta’s main asset is a first-rate screenplay, a savagely smart take on adolescent angst adapted by Gustin Nash.

The prickly, articulate dialogue is stylised, but it is not burdened with the showy “look at me!” fakery of Diablo Cody’s Juno screenplay. It’s flowery but feels authentic as the voice of a pretentious 16-year-old loner who aspires to write a Great American Novel. “Don’t you love vinyl?” says the dream girl Sheeni, as she casually slides a Serge Gainsbourg album on to the turntable. “Yes. It’s very ... textural,” squeaks Nick (Cera), almost vomiting with desire and longing. The impressive names that crop up in the supporting cast — Steve Buscemi plays Nick’s dad, Zach Galifianakis plays his mother’s sometime boyfriend, and Ray Liotta, Fred Willard and Justin Long all have cameos — are a testament to the quality of the script.

Nick Twisp is, on the face of it, a classic Michael Cera character. He’s a discordant symphony of angular awkwardness, all jutting elbows and jittery nerves. He wears his reluctant virginity and lack of success with girls like a “kick me” note. And he is hopelessly and utterly smitten with

Sheeni (Portia Doubleday), the holiday romance that, he hopes, will change his life for ever.

But Nick is not convinced that he has what it takes to keep the girl of his dreams, particularly since his rival for Sheeni’s heart is a French-speaking sports hero who writes “futurist percussive poetry”. So he creates a devil-may-care alter ego, a Gauloise-puffing rebel who oozes glamorous nihilism and says and does the things that Nick would never dare. His name is François Dillinger and he is going to get the sweet-natured, inoffensive Nick into a whole lot of trouble.

Arteta punctuates the film with playful little animated snippets, which work rather well, bringing a kind of controlled anarchy to the storytelling. Even so, the movie does flag just a little in the few minutes before the amusingly eventful final act.

Despite this dip in energy, it manages to go out with a bang — or several bangs to be precise.

(15, 90 mins)

Wendy Ide, The Times 05-02-2010