Youth in Revolt

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Calvin Wilson

Bursting with smart dialogue, surprising situations and humor that springs from richly imagined characters.

New York Post Kyle Smith

An improbable but hilarious combine of losin’-it comedies and the rarefied, Europhile air of the Cinema du Twee.

Empire Andrew Male

It’s chaotic and episodic, but this is Cera’s star turn. "Superbad" meets "Fight Club?" That’ll do it.

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

Cera exudes a geeky charm and tender vulnerability that's hard to resist -- probably because he's far easier to relate to for most of us than we'd like to admit.

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli

A clever and often riotous burst of cynicism that pushes some pretty questionable ideas.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It’s not earth-shaking, but it’s diverting and polished.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

One of the secrets of Youth in Revolt is that Nick seems bewildered by his own desires and strategies. He knows how he feels, he knows what he wants, but he'd need a map to get from A to B. It's his self-abasing modesty that makes the movie work. Here, you feel, is a movie character who would find more peace on the radio.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The slight but enjoyable Youth in Revolt finds plenty of mayhem to take advantage of Cera's against-type performance. Oh, the things we do for love.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Some tacky animated sequences notwithstanding, Youth in Revolt is smart, cool and frequently hysterical.

Chicago Reader Cliff Doerksen

Mildly diverting rather than uproarious, the film still stands out among teen sex comedies for its low-key approach to antic material. The best bits are supplied by Justin Long as Doubleday's stoner brother and Adhir Kalyan as the hero's plummy-accented coconspirator.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

The collision of adolescent hormones and parental folly, hardly new cinematic territory, gets a bracing absurdist slant in Youth in Revolt.

Variety Peter Debruge

Cera and his gifted comic co-stars elevate the mediocre source material into a semi-iconic coming-of-age story.

Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz

It does give Cera a chance to play at being a bad boy. But it's just that - playing at it.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Youth in Revolt is basically an absurdist ramble, but a terrifically likable ramble.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Sweet and slight and often charming coming-of-age tale.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Along the way, it even gives the adorable manchild Michael Cera the chance to reinvent himself as a possible sex symbol -- in other words, it allows him to be a man.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Miguel Arteta’s rollicking Youth in Revolt is one of several recent movies to elevate the generic coming-of-age teen sex comedy to a plane of surrealism.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Arteta’s well-intentioned film version feels simultaneously overstuffed and undercooked.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

It’s an enjoyable enough exercise in teen angst triumphing.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's a bitch telling a coming-of-age story minus clichés and sappiness. So Youth in Revolt, with Michael Cera in his best performance yet, is a small miracle.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Youth in Revolt isn't bad -- the cast is too good for it to be bad.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

There are some good, sharp, surprising laughs in Youth in Revolt. So why does it feel so dreadfully familiar?

ReelViews James Berardinelli

From the beginning, it's apparent that there's something "off" about Youth in Revolt. It's not that the film is fatally flawed, but the tone is uneven, the satire is blunt, the comedy rarely generates more than feeble laughs, and the lead character never comes fully to life.

Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore

Equal parts inspired and irresponsible, the new film from Miguel Arteta (director of the cult hit 'Chuck and Buck') turns C.D. Payne's books into a hit-or-miss homage to that French classic of outlaw love, 'Breathless.'

USA Today Claudia Puig

Youth's screenplay, by Gustin Nash, is generally witty.

Boxoffice Magazine Amy Nicholson

Payne's book is more epic and shameless than Gustin Nash's tidy adaptation.

Time Out New York Keith Uhlich

It’s a kick to see Cera cut loose from his patented befuddled-nerd routine, even if the film’s caricatured performances and fish-in-a-barrel scorn are sure to be monotonous for some.

Time Mary Pols

Uneven but occasionally quite funny.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Timing is everything. And Youth in Revolt is late -- arriving not just at the tail end of the star's sell-by date for this particular kind of character, but more importantly at the tail end of the intended audience's attention span for an inconsequential Sundance-y tale of sexual coming-of-age.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

Winded and weary from its long journey to a bigger screen, the three-books-in-one has been squeezed into a 90-minute Cliff's Notes version starring Michael Cera as Every Role Michael Cera's Ever Had.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Cera can be winning enough, with his flat-toned goofiness, in films like "Superbad," but there's only just enough of the guy to fill out one dramatis persona; two at once prove to be beyond him. [11 Jan. 2010, p.83]

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Just sweet enough to avoid being negligible.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

In Youth in Revolt , Cera bellies up to the same table once too often. His fresh-faced act is starting to look really stale.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A movie that feels written rather than lived; from "The Catcher in the Rye" to "Rushmore," it's a story we've seen in better versions before.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

While Cera is charming enough to keep us watching, he's never allowed to cut loose -- even though that's supposed to be the whole point of the movie.