Atticus Finch Rebels Against Michael Cera In Miguel Arteta's YOUTH IN REVOLT!

Beaks here...

Director Miguel Arteta is no stranger to fucked up endings. The conclusion to his first film, STAR MAPS, drew boos when I saw it back in 1997, while the final ten minutes of CHUCK & BUCK was... well, you really ought to see it for yourself. So I'm not surprised to hear that the finale of his latest, YOUTH IN REVOLT, is dividing audiences. I'm still looking forward to it, but, according to the below review from "Atticus Finch", your time would be better spent busting up a chifforobe.

Hi, Coolers! Attended a screening last night of the new Michael Cera comedy YOUTH IN REVOLT. We were told we were the first audience to see it, which is always pleasant; kind of like taking the first bite of a new candy bar. There are mild spoilers laden within, so tread carefully. The first sign that we were in trouble was that this was being released by The Weinstein Brothers under their Dimension label. Isn't that where movies go to die a direct to DVD death? I hadn't heard of the series of books this was based on, three tomes by C.D. Payne (that have so far been lifted for the plot of the film 100 Girls, a failed tv pilot, and a stage adaptation) but judging from the audience reaction last night, I'm not missing anything. The film is a series of misadventures about a virginal young man named Nick Twisp (Cera, playing the same character he has in his last three films). Nick is awkward, artistic, and fairly sure no girl will ever want him. He lives with his trailer-trash mother (Jean Smart, very funny) and her newest boyfriend Jerry (Zack Galifianakis, wearing a ferocious beard and oozing slime) a truck driver with short man's disease and a terminal boner. Jerry sells three sailors a defective car, they come looking for their money back, and Jerry decides the three of them need to go on vacation, right away. They end up at a seedy trailer park near a lake (after a truly awful claymation title sequence that needs to be rethought before release). The trailer's a shithole, but Nick meets the girl of his dreams, Sheeni Saunders (newcomer Portia Doubleday). She's young, blonde, and one of those women who amuse themselves by destroying the men who adore her. Poor Nick, a slave to his hormones and a belief that Sinatra is how the way the world really works, falls hard...and his fate is sealed. She likes him, she has a boyfriend so don't touch her, maybe just one kiss, touch my breast, maybe I'll break up with my boyfriend if you move here. Nick's father has just lost his job, and Sheeni says she can get him one nearby; then all Nick has to do is get kicked out of his mother's house and then they can be together. But his mother is living on the child support checks from Dad and needs him to survive. Time to revolt. Nick develops an alter-ego to do his dirty work for him, a cool Frenchman named Francois (still Cera, just with a pencil-thin mustache and a constantly dangling cigarette). Francois destroys his mother's car (along with half of Berkeley's dining district) and Nick gets his wish; he moves in with his father, only to find that Sheeni is now attending school 300 miles away. This is a good example of the "thinking with your dick will get you into trouble" kind of film. Things go from bad to pretty fucking terrible for poor Nick, to the point where there is an all-points bulletin for his arrest, leading to a truly hilarious scene where Nick tries to fake his own death (when attempting to fake your own death by sending your car plummeting over a cliff into the river, try to ascertain the depth of the river first.) Director Miguel Arteta (of Chuck and Buck and StarMaps fame) does a good job of escalating Nick's dilemma, and the film is full of familiar faces (Steve Buscemi plays the dad, Ray Liotta is a cop who comes to bring his mom bad news and stays on, Fred Willard is a next door neighbor who harbors illegal aliens). I must admit I sighed when the film started, as the feel was lukewarm Juno, but as the film progressed I warmed up quite a bit. I actually started to care about the characters, and as things got worse for Nick, I began to hope that everything would turn out well in the end. MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD! And that's where the movie shoots itself in the foot. The abrupt, slap in your face, what the Fuck? ending. Nick, having eluded the police, screwed up faking his death, and alienating the girl he loves, shows up at her house in drag. He apologizes to Sheeni, tells her he wants her to be happy, she melts, they make love, he falls asleep...and the bitch calls the police on him! Why did you do that, he asks, obviously hurt. Because I don't want to marry a fugitive, she tells him. Then she says she loves him. Then he is taken away by the police while Sinatra plays on the soundtrack. What? The audience hated the ending. Haaaaated it. The customary applause at the end was muted and there were murmurs of "rip-off" and "are you fucking kidding me?". All the goodwill that had been built up in the past two hours was gone. I read an interview with Cera saying that he wanted to retire from movies, so he must have seen the same ending. If the Weinstein's want to save the film, they better fix the ending first. If you use this, please call me Atticus Finch!