 Rushed into production to beat the threatened directors’ strike in May 2008, “Youth in Revolt’’ was made well before some of us started getting tired of watching Michael Cera play Michael Cera. The former is Nick Twisp, an Oakland 16-year-old with a life that’s a litany of awful: trashy mom (Jean Smart), mom’s beer-swilling con man boyfriend (Zach Galifianakis of “The Hangover’’), uptight dad (Steve Buscemi), dad’s luscious bimbo girlfriend (Ari Graynor). There's no place for Nick in these mixed-up parental equations, and so when he meets and instantly falls for another misfit, a sly, smart minx named Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), he dreams of a way for the two of them to be together. But miraculously, Miguel Arteta's "Youth in Revolt," based on C.D. Payne that are smarter, funnier, and more filthy-minded than you’d expect.
– Youth in Revolt was shot in early 2008, which, Ty Burr of the Boston Globe notes, was “before some of us started getting tired of watching Michael Cera play Michael Cera.” If you aren’t tired of Cera’s adorably dorky shtick, you’ll find Youth a sharp and funny, if familiar, effort. Here’s what critics are saying: Miraculously, Youth “has enough charm to make us feel something for its shy, gangly protagonist,” writes Stephanie Zacharek for Salon, “and enough bite to keep us from wanting to kill him.” It’s “basically an absurdist ramble, but a terrifically likable ramble” writes Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal, “If you’ve been looking for a film whose hero uses the subjunctive frequently and correctly, Youth in Revolt is it.” But that was a turnoff for Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post. “The characters all seem to be speaking in the same arch, hyper-literary drone,” she complains. The story, a tired Catcher in the Rye rehash, “feels written rather than lived."