Official Site: Youth in Revolt
Jean-Luc Godard once said that all he needed to make a movie was a girl and a gun. Well, director Miguel Arteta has taken that simple idea and expanded on it. In his Youth in Revolt, the girl is Sheeni Saunders (played with a sort of listless Jean Seberg non-energy by Portia Doubleday), who wanders into the so-far-uneventful life of Nick Twisp (played with the usual sense of wistful nonchalance we've come to expect - and somewhat dread by now - from Michael Cera) and instills in him a sudden lust for life. She puts this youth in revolt, so to speak.
But when it comes to the gun Godard had spoken of, Arteta has instead replaced that prophetic firearm with the imagined (perhaps schizophrenic) persona of his made-for-hire alter ego Francois. Complete with drawn-on, pencil-thin mustache and appropriately Gallic nom de plume to impress his would-be Francophile girlfriend, Cera's carefree ne'er-do-well Francois incites Cera's timid lovestruck Nick to go to no ends to win over his newfound love. This includes, but is not limited to, burning down part of a city block and drugging the very girl he is after in order to cause her to fail out of school and hence return home to him. Francois ends up being more dangerous to Nick than any old gun Godard was thinking of.
With references to Godard, both outright (Sheeni's obsession with the filmmaker) and implied (the film can be seen as a semi-remake of Godard's own Breathless), as well as dialogue about other cinematic icons (including the rather humorous notion of Nick's inability to differentiate between Ozu and Mizoguchi), there is no doubt about director Arteta’s high aspirations. There is also little denying the great potential such ideas would have upon a film. Unfortunately for us—and for Arteta—neither the filmmaker's aspirations nor the film's potential ever live up to what they should. Arteta, whose previous films Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl both came through (for the most part) on their quirky promises, never sends this film far enough in any sort of revolutionary way (as Godard did many times over) to make the whole thing work.
There are moments in the film that sing (mainly involving Cera's dual-personality debates and the young actor's aloofly snide asides), but overall it seems too rushed to ever land any of its would-be cinematic blows. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that Cera is playing the exact same part he has played over and over (and over) again in film after film (after film). Yes, he has his moments in the film, and probably the best ones at that, but the actor's schtick does wear a bit thin after awhile. Unfortunately, it is this tiring schtick we’ve seen before, and not the director's attempt at revolutionary cinema, that keeps the film going as far as it goes—and really, that isn't all that far when everything is said and done.
Kevyn Knox is a film historian and critic. His reviews can be read at www.thecinematheque.com. He is a regular contributor to Film International and Plume-Noire and is the regular film columnist for a local alternative monthly called The Burg. He is also the cinema director of Midtown Cinema in his hometown of Harrisburg, PA, and has sat upon the jury of the Harrisburg Film Festival every year since 2004. He is currently working on his first book, tentatively titled, Wild Bill: The Life, Times & Films of William A. Wellman.