Michael Cera revolting? I agree.

Mickey Cera has been failing to top himself for years.
I'm surprised he didn't once he realised he was in Year One.

But Cera has been playing the same schtick for too long, awkward nerdy tee trying to get laid.
And it was good when it was fresh. The unwrapped marvel of George Michael Bluth, not the singer songwriter, who awkwardly fell in love with his cousin, and then the most boring girl on the planet. Her?
So when Superbad came out I was all aquiver, Cera's big break. Superbad remains a disappointment, bland, dull, the acting is hit and miss, and the breakthroughs came from Christopher Mitz-Plasse and Bill Hader.
Cera then made Juno, where he and Jason Bateman were in the same film together. It was, however, an overwhelming failure.
As was Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, and of course, eugh, Year One.

So it's nice to say Youth In Revolt has the best Michael Cera I've seen since Lucille was arrested in 2006.
Cera plays Nick Twisp, an awkward 16 year old who is 'too nice' for the girls, who want bad guys. He meets one girl who likes as many pretentious things as he, the script was not written with normal teens in mind, only the indie kids that don't exist, at least not in the most extreme nature they do on film. Only problem is she has a boyfriend and he has to move away. So, in a plan she can get his father a job nearby if Twisp can get kicked out of the house. He does this by inventing an alter ego full of evil, Francois Dillinger.

Michael Cera with a John Waters mustache smoking and acting nasty, it's actually rather hysterical, and when the two Ceras interact you forget it's one person playing them, similar to Sam Rockwell last year, two solid performances from the same person make your forget so easily.

Though Cera is fantastic in this, his co-stars are top notch too, included in this group are Steve Buscemi as his father. Fred Willard as an activist neighbour, when is Willard bad? Even with a bad script he brings the funny, as evidenced here. Justin Long briefly appears as a drugged up brother to Cera's love. Zach Galifianakis is nasty and grimy as Twisp's mother's lover in the opening, who escapes post-return home, after a long series of events.
Ray Liotta is a police officer who hooks up with Twisp's mother, and eventually calls for Twisp's arrest once they break up.

But with such a cast, it can't retain quality, as the film's 90 minutes running time is full of scenarios that it has to overcome, within that time Cera is forced away from home for fear that Galifianakis will be beaten up by sailors, meets a girl, goes home, invents a new self, blows up a restaurant, lives with his father takes a trip to the other side of America to visit the girl, get sent home, convince another girl to help get his love expelled, go home, evade police, fake death, make love to his love, get arrrested, all in 90 minutes.

It's an over padded film with lots of strands that go nowhere and offer no laughs, which is a shame as some scenes are hysterical, but as the film drags on, it gets heavier and heavier to a point where it's ridiculous and plodding. Like Edge Of Darkness, this was an adaptation, though of a book this time, but why do these films think retaining EVERYTHING makes it a good film? Tighten it up, have a straight focus, and don't make it seem so different if in the end it's as bland and generic as any film.
5/10