Youth in Revolt

I had the pleasure of working at the Virginia Film Festival this year in Charlottesville where I was able to see a few pretty decent films. One of which on the closing night was Michael Cera's Youth in Revolt. Youth in Revolt is based on the much beloved novel of same name. It follows the life and times of 14 year old Nick Twisp and his escape from his trailer trash household and his quest to find his dream girl, Sheeni Saunders, and lose his virginity. The film contains an all star cast of Michael Cera, Zach Galifianakis, Fred Willard, Ray Liotta, Justin Long, and Steve Buscemi.

The film follows 14 year old Nick Twisp (although I think they changed his age to 16 for the film, a more believable age for Cera to play) through his adventures in leaving himself, essentially, and becoming more of a "bad boy" so he can get the guts to win over his dream girl Sheeni Saunders with who he had a minor fling with at her trailer park during a vacation he was on. The nervous fumbling mouthed Twisp soon develops the split personality of Francois, the foul mouthed, take no shit from nobody criminal, also played by Micheal Cera wearing a classy white suit and a sketchy looking mustache. I know at this day in age it isn't hard to do anymore, but I still think the filmmakers did a good job at showing two Michael Cera's playing both characters in the same scenes together.

I was a little disappointed by use of Zach Galifianakis' character Jerry, who plays Nicks mothers trashy boyfriend. I felt there simply just wasn't enough of him. His character had a few great lines in the film but that's about it, and with his recent success in The Hangover, I just wanted to see a bit more of the guy that's all. On the other hand Steve Buscemi who plays Nicks dad is great as the young hussy hounding sleaze who cares more about the well being of his car than his son. Fred Willard probably has the best scenes in the film as the crazy neighbor who's obsessed with illegal aliens and their well-being.

I must say though that this film has a strange kind of quiet feeling to it and moves along at a slow/medium pace. Not that there's anything wrong with that but it takes some getting used to. With that being said I also think that if it wasn't for the split personality change of Nick turning into Francois, this film would be lower than average. But because Cera offers some of his best work to date while portraying Nick and the entertaining Francois simultaneously, I'm recommending this film a little more. Youth in Revolt gets 3 outa 5.

Observe and Report - Blu-Ray

Director Jody Hill is relatively new to the world of comedy. In 2006 he came out with a small independent film called The Foot Fist Way starring Danny McBride. The Foot Fist Way was hilarious and apparently Will Ferrell thought the same thing because he got the picture into main stream cinemas and put Jody Hill and McBride on the map. Well deserved if I may say so. Hills second feature Observe and Report was a good effort, but just didn't stick with me as much as Foot Fist Way did.

Observe is a very dark and strange film, not what I was expecting. The film stars Seth Rogen as Ronnie, a mall security guard who takes his job way to seriously. He resorts to smashing young kids in the heads knocking them off their skateboards, hanging out at the shooting range buckin off shots, taking out 20 cops with a mag-light, and making out with Anna Faris while puke is drooling out of her mouth. Now DON'T get me wrong, this all sounds really great and funny right?? I thought the same thing, but it's not. It's got a really weird feel to it and it makes it hard to laugh. Once Ronnie is faced with the mission of taking down the flasher that's been causing chaos in the parking lot, he gets "paired" up with Detective Harrison. I laughed really hard a few times (a part where his partner Dennis, played by Michael Pena, is doing heroin in the bathroom had me dying) but not for the most part. I understand Hill's going for the dark comedy, and trying something new with the action and realism, but I just couldn't get into it. I saw it in theaters and thought it was better, but this second viewing I was thanking myself I only netflixed it.

I will say this. Anna Faris was brilliant. Even though she's totally type casted as "the ditzy blonde" all the time, she always brings it in my eye's, and she's flat out funny as hell in this. Ray Liotta is always great and he brings his best Liotta yells and "take no shit" attitude to his role as Detective Harrison. Even at only an hour and twenty minutes running time the film still felt a bit slow at times. Especially the scenes with his drunk mom played by Celia Weston. She's great for the part but it really slowed the film down after a while.

Now don't get me wrong. The film did have it's moments, the overall idea is great, and if Ronnie wasn't so very unlikable in every way this may have worked. If this was done as a balls out funny action comedy this could have and probably would have been the funniest film of the Summer. I mean, I want to watch it again right now, it looks great on blu-ray, and I like the idea of the film, but I put it in and just can't do it. I hope that makes sense in a way. It kinda pisses me off. Observe and Report gets 2 1/2 outa 5