Hawaii International Film Festival 2009

A hysterically twisted coming-of-age tale chronicling the awkward tribulations of a Camus-spouting, Godard-loving teenaged boy who is cursed with trailer-trash parents and a terminal case of virginity, Youth in Revolt is a wickedly ironic treat. The fact that it stars comedic royalty Michael Cera, Zach Galifianakis, Jean Smart and Steve Buscemi under the direction of the man responsible for some of the funniest episodes of Ugly Betty, The Office, Six Feet Under and Freaks and Geeks makes it pure gold.

Filled with intellectual pretensions and raging hormones, Nick Twisp (Cera) lives a dull life with his cougar mother, Estelle (Smart), and her truck-driving, loutish boyfriend, Jerry (Galifianakis). When Jerry sells a group of strapping young sailors a lemon Chevy Nova, they want revenge. In true heroic fashion, Jerry takes the family to hide out in a trailer park until the coast is clear. Nick is sorely out of place, thinking himself condemned to slum it with his barbaric family, until he meets Sheeni (newcomer Portia Doubleday), the precocious Ozu-loving dilettante in the nearby two-storey trailer. It's love at first sight, further cemented when Sheeni plays him French crooners on vinyl. But Nick's romanticized vision is shattered when he discovers that Sheeni is dating Trent (Jonathan B. Wright), a sickeningly handsome fop in tennis shoes and a cream-coloured sweater. With the stakes raised, Nick goes to hilarious lengths to secure Sheeni's love, including buying her a puppy named Albert (after Camus, of course) and even creating an alter ego for himself, François Dillinger. A chain-smoking Frenchman sporting a devil-may-care moustache, François gets Nick into disaster after disaster in his quest for Sheeni's attention.

Based on C. D. Payne's cult-hit novel of the same name, Youth in Revolt is as smart as it is funny, combining classic black comedy with fresh new interpretations by its terrific young cast. No one plays the comedy of embarrassment better than Michael Cera, and in pitting a familiar Cera character against his dangerous French doppelganger, director Miguel Arteta has found a perfect new take on the genre.