JIM reports on film "YOUTH IN REVOLT" & the live Q&A with MICHAEL CERA

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“YOUTH IN REVOLT” — An Alter-Ego can alter your LIFE! =

Director: Miguel Arteta

MY Rating: 7.5 of 10 stars (based on an advance preview of a 90–minute film opening Jan. 8, 2010).

Because there was a time “conflict” between this and another engagement for which I was scheduled, I was only able to see around the last HALF of this film in person last month. However, I had watched various TRAILERS about it beforehand, & that allowed me to not only know the basic story, but to be able to “PREDICT” what was going to happen based on funny scenes I’d seen in the trailers (which contain most of the main humor touchstones inherent in the film)…

… The basic story is, 14-year-old teenager Nick Twisp (MICHAEL CERA) is very upset with his “trailer trash” parents George (STEVE BUSCEMI) & Estelle (JEAN SMART), who are close to divorcing. In fact, Estelle is already seeing another guy named Jerry (ZACH GALIFIANAKIS), whom Michael describes as a “pathological liar” (in part because he’s very antagonistic towards him)…

… Besides having to deal with his difficult parents, Michael also has to deal with his raging HORMONES. His big immediate goal in life is to lose his virginity to a pretty neighbor girl Sheeni Saunders (PORTIA DOUBLEDAY), who’s his “dream girl”… But, since he’s young & nerdy, he finds it very hard to gumption-ize himself enough to actively try to get to know & go OUT with her…

… To help him with his dilemmas in life, Michael invents a suave ALTER-EGO of himself who he names “FRANCOIS DILLINGER”. You often see them TOGETHER— with “normal” Michael supporting the “GOOD” side, & Francois being the equivalent of a “BAD ANGEL” who keeps tempting him with “forbidden” ideas and actions and speaking the “DIRTY” thoughts Michael thinks but is too afraid to actually SAY to girls and others…

… Michael pals around with an immigrant friend, Vijay Joshi (ADHIR KALYAN), & they get in a clump of calamities with each other… Another neighbor of Michael’s is a druggie friend named Paul Saunders (JUSTIN LONG), & his dad (M. EMMET WALSH) & Mom (MARY KAY PLACE), + spacy neighbor Mr. Ferguson (FRED WILLARD)…

… A competitor for the attention of Portia is Trent (JONATHAN BRADFORD WRIGHT), who actively HATES wimpy Michael & delights in causing distress for him… As Michael tries to go after his desired girl, his “natural ineptitude” leads him into a series of TROUBLE-causing incidents (such as accidentally producing an explosion in town), to the increasing disgust of cop Lance Wescott (RAY LIOTTA)…

… The film follows Michael’s gradual growth towards using the “BADVATAR” inside him (to use a term used on the film’s clever web-site), & the truly funny trials & tribulations he experiences due to “fighting” with the nagging of his “supplementary personna” of “FRANCOIS”… As he says, “In the movies, it’s the GOOD guy that gets the girl. In REAL life, it’s usually the ****K!”…

… In this film, you can enjoy a bunch of nutty humor (involving violence, “magic” mushrooms, cars, friends, relatives & the “Fuzz”), much of it instigated by freaky & foul Francois. It’s the contentious conflicts with his “F-D” side that launch the boatloads of buffoonery that Michael engenders… The audience frequently rollicked with raucous laughs at the well-acted onscreen happenings (many of them caused by the sexually-suggestive dialogue & actions)…

* —————- *

After the film, I was pleased to listen to — & at times shoot photographs –- of the entire live in-person Q&A held with MICHAEL CERA & PORTIA DOUBLEDAY, which was specially-lit & filmed for future possible promotional purposes by Dimension Films (which also interviewed audience members after the talk):

… At 9:39 PM, host “Capone” of AICN asked the stars a bunch of questions about the movie we’d just seen, including about all the sexual innuendos and the like. After responding to that, Michael breezily added that, “I DON’T HAVE a ‘Comfort Zone’ in ANY way of life!—”, to which the audience laughed…

… In person, Michael was as understated & “dry” in his humor as he is in a number of his film roles, with a bunch of “side” comments on subjects (such as Brendan Fraser)… He said no, he has NO actual “animosity” with the guy who played “Trent” in the “Youth” film— in fact, they’re friends, & he was also in his “NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST” movie…

… When asked where his interesting characters “come from” in his movies, Michael replied, “Really good SCRIPTS!”…

… As to the film seen that nite, an audience member asked if it was difficult to do his DUAL roles, Michael said, “Was it an obstacle to need to talk to MYSELF?— YES!”, in that it involved “really tricky TIMING” to be able to get things right when pretending to talk back & forth to “Francois”… He said, in a way, he had to “‘channel’ that MALCOLM McDOWELL” type character, & he soon added, “You guys are laughing at the ‘WRONG’ things!…”

… Portia then answered some questions. She wondered if anyone had read the BOOK on which the film had been based, & there wasn’t much positive response to that. As I recall, she indicated she had read it before doing her role… A statement was made that, “I think BOTH of the characters were ‘lost’—”, & “She’s just in a bad environment.”…

… A person in the audience asked Michael, how is his son AMOS doing? In a friendly but firm way, Michael immediately said, “Let’s keep it about the MOVIE—!”…

… That got a positive response, & a new question was asked about how the “Youth” movie was put together. To that, Michael said about the director that, “Miguel is really COLLABORATIVE—” in the way he worked. He added that, while it was generally felt that every one of the actors could pretty much do whatever they WANTED to do in their roles, in reality, there actually was NOT much real “ad-lib” work done, as opposed to things experimented with & worked out previously…

… He liked the “crown” dialogue, & was in-effect surprised that they were allowed to DO dialogue such as the words about sinking something [private] into a red “tomato”… He found the “supplementary” role of “Francois” a lot of FUN to play, especially in how it allowed him to act very differently than his “usual” roles… ”… In effect, he doesn’t feel he needs to “change” the type of roles he does: “Nick Twisp was ‘ENOUGH’…”

… At one point, a woman in the audience said, she almost hates to ask but — [referring to the then-recently-released “TWILIGHT— NEW MOON” film], would he say he was a member of “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob”?… Many in the audience groaned, & Michael said, that’d be a bit hard to say— he’d fallen ASLEEP during a recent viewing of the film… He quickly added, he’d been very TIRED due to all his work recently!…

… He sort of liked the film “Taking Woodstock”… He kidded about “workouts” & other subjects. As to one of his popular movies [possibly “Paper Heart”?], when asked if anyone was talking about doing a SEQUEL, he said, “I don’t know if it’s ‘begging’ for a sequel… I don’t think so.”…

… There was still the possibility of the ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT” film [scheduled for 2011] going forward… Sort of referring to the Q&A, a comment was made about “This monumental DISTRACTION—”…

… As to playing certain future roles & the like, with the characters he’s played before, Michael kidded about how “I might be away for a long time… I’m at least NOT going in as a ‘VIRGIN’!… I’m a Romance ‘KING’…”

… Michael said yes, next year, he IS scheduled to star [as the title character] in the “SCOTT PILGRIM Vs. The World” movie [based on a series of Canadian graphic novels of that name], & the large “cognoscenti” group in the audience applauded heartily upon hearing that. [His character is a lazy 23-year-old video-game-playing band member who lives in a big city with a gay roommate]…

… PORTIA said, her immediate plan is to work on a paper due at her high-school!… Michael was quite HUMOROUS (in his usual dry, “understated” way), kidding about how he in-effect needs to do a bunch of “DRINKING” to get what would in-effect be in-“character” for an upcoming role…

… Michael acted typically nonplussed when an audience person commented that he “looked great in DRAG” in a recent role, & a comment was offered that, “I was ‘EXCITED’ about it…” …

… When asked about his FAVORITE ACTOR to work with, Michael hesitated a bit & then said, “Uh— I don’t know…. JASON SCHWARTZMAN is really, really FUNNY—”, he’s in the new “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” film, & “‘Rushmore’ is my favorite…” [& he’s also quite good, in my opinion, in “Funny People”]… When the audience seemed surprised at his answer, he added, “The truth ISN’T funny, people!…” (to which they laughed)…

… Michael was asked whether he chooses roles based on the project or the character he’s to play, &, in effect, he said, his choices are usually based on a COMBINATION of elements… As to non-actor people he “hangs” with, he said, that varies, adding, he had recently spent time playing a game of soccer with RIVERS CUOMO [of the Weezer band], but you can get sort of “lost” in the “directions” to it all…

… To another question, Michael said, he likes doing BOTH TV & movie work. For example, “you really become a ‘FAMILY’—“ when working regularly with a TV cast, tho that can be true in movies, too… He added, “I feel really LUCKY to be WORKING in ANY way!”… He also finds fun in certain INTERNET stuff that’s been done [seemingly referring to a series shown on their web-site that was done with his best friend Clark Duke]…

… A guy in the back of the audience asked Michael, did he ever get comments from young males THANKING him for HELPING them in their efforts towards women? At first, Michael misunderstood the question, thinking he’d been asked if his roles had helped GAY guys, & he said, “No, that’s NEVER happened to me.”… Realizing (from some other words by Michael) that he’d been misunderstood, the audience member then clarified his question, & Michael said, actually, no one had ever remarked that how he’d played his roles had helped them with WOMEN, either!…

… A young lady in the audience asked, would he please SING “You die—” for her? He said, he felt really uncomfortable doing that, commenting to Capone about the live Q&A, “This is a lot more PAINFUL than I thought [it’d be] when I agreed to DO it!”— but, he SANG the requested song, & the audience applauded in appreciation…

… Capone kidded about some things, & then THANKED Michael & Portia for joining us at the Q&A (for which the enthusiastic audience offered hearty applause)… While Michael fairly quickly left thru a back door, Portia stayed around & talked to some people a bit & signed an autograph before she left…