If you were a teenager in the late 2000s, Michael Cera was basically the patron saint of the "awkward indie kid." He had that soft-spoken, slightly terrified energy that made movies like Superbad and Juno feel like documentary footage of our collective social anxiety. But then 2010 hit, and we got Michael Cera Youth in Revolt.
It was weird. People didn't quite know what to do with it.
Most critics at the time looked at the posters—Cera with a pencil-thin mustache and a cigarette—and thought, "Oh, he’s trying to be edgy." They weren't entirely wrong, but they were missing the point. The movie wasn't just a "Michael Cera movie." It was an adaptation of C.D. Payne’s massive, cult-favorite epistolary novel that had been stuck in development hell for ages. When it finally arrived, directed by Miguel Arteta, it felt like a fever dream.
The Dual Identity of Nick Twisp
The heart of the story is Nick Twisp. He’s a 16-year-old (upped from 14 in the books) living in Oakland, obsessed with Frank Sinatra, Fellini, and the fact that he’s still a virgin. His life is a mess of divorced parents and low-rent boyfriends.
Then he meets Sheeni Saunders, played by Portia Doubleday.
Sheeni is the kind of girl who likes Jean-Paul Belmondo and French culture. She’s sophisticated in a way that Nick absolutely is not. To win her over, Nick realizes he can’t be the polite, stuttering kid he’s always been. He needs to be a "bad boy."
Enter Francois Dillinger.
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This is where the Michael Cera Youth in Revolt performance gets interesting. Francois is Nick's id. He’s an imaginary alter ego who wears white loafers, smokes Gitanes, and has zero moral compass. Cera plays both roles, often appearing in the same frame through some pretty clever (for the time) split-screen work. Francois doesn’t just give Nick advice; he goads him into committing actual felonies. We’re talking arson, car theft, and blowing up part of Berkeley.
Honestly, seeing the "sweet" kid from Arrested Development casually flip a car into a lake while wearing a blue button-down and a sneer was a total shock to the system in 2010.
A Cast That Had No Business Being This Stacked
If you rewatch the movie today, the supporting cast is a "who’s who" of people who were about to become huge or were already legends.
- Zach Galifianakis plays Jerry, the dirtbag boyfriend of Nick’s mom. It’s a roles that’s intentionally uncharming.
- Steve Buscemi is Nick’s dad, George, who is mostly concerned with his much younger girlfriend.
- Ray Liotta shows up as a crooked cop.
- Jean Smart plays Nick's mom, Estelle.
- Justin Long is Paul, Sheeni's stoner brother who provides some of the best comedic relief in the film.
Even a young Rooney Mara appears as Taggarty. It’s a wild collection of talent for an $18 million indie comedy.
Why It Didn't Explode at the Box Office
The numbers for Michael Cera Youth in Revolt were... modest. It opened in January 2010, which is historically a dumping ground for movies. It grossed about $6.9 million in its opening weekend and ended its theatrical run with roughly $19.7 million worldwide.
Against an $18 million budget? That’s barely breaking even once you factor in marketing.
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But box office isn't everything. The movie suffered from a weird identity crisis in its marketing. Was it a teen sex comedy? An indie satire? A surrealist fantasy? It’s actually all three. Miguel Arteta used stop-motion animation and claymation for transition scenes, which gave it a whimsical, hand-made feel that didn't necessarily scream "Blockbuster Comedy."
Critics were split, too. Rotten Tomatoes has it sitting around 66%. Some felt Cera was just playing himself again, while others, like the critics at TIME, noticed the "guile in Francois's eyes" and saw it as a hint that Cera had way more range than people gave him credit for.
The Book vs. The Movie: What Got Lost?
Fans of the C.D. Payne novels are a devoted bunch. The original book is a 500-page "journal" that is significantly more raunchy and cynical than the film. In the book, Nick is younger—only 14—which makes his "revolt" feel even more absurd and dangerous.
Michael Cera actually pushed for the movie to be made for years. He was a genuine fan of the source material. However, even he admitted in interviews around the release that the story might have worked better as a mini-series. Trying to cram three volumes of Nick Twisp’s journals into a 90-minute runtime meant cutting out dozens of characters and subplots.
The film keeps the "greatest hits"—the mustache, the trailer park, the French boarding school break-in—but it loses some of the day-to-day grit of Nick’s internal monologue.
The Enduring Legacy of Francois Dillinger
So, why does Michael Cera Youth in Revolt still matter?
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It was the first time we saw Cera weaponize his "niceness." Before this, he was the victim of the joke. In Youth in Revolt, he (or at least his alter ego) is the one causing the chaos. It paved the way for his later, even weirder roles, like playing a coked-out version of himself in This Is the End or his surreal turn in Barbie.
The movie captures a very specific "indie sleaze" aesthetic of the late 2000s. The soundtrack is full of tracks from the Fruit Bats, Beulah, and Jacques Dutronc. It’s pretentious, but it knows it’s pretentious. That’s the joke.
How to Appreciate It Today
If you're going to dive back into the world of Nick Twisp, don't go in expecting Superbad 2. It’s not that. It’s a dark, slightly mean-spirited comedy about how far a kid will go to get a girl to notice him.
- Watch the "split" scenes closely. The chemistry Cera has with himself as Francois is actually a masterclass in comic timing.
- Look for the animation. The claymation sequences by Chuy Chávez add a layer of "storybook gone wrong" that makes the felonies feel more like a fable.
- Check out the soundtrack. Honestly, the music choices are still top-tier indie curation.
Michael Cera Youth in Revolt isn't a perfect movie. It’s messy, the pacing is a bit frantic, and the ending feels like it just... happens. But it’s an authentic piece of cult cinema. It dared to be weird when most teen movies were playing it safe.
If you want to see the film for yourself, it’s frequently available on streaming platforms like Max or for digital rent. To get the full experience, track down a copy of the C.D. Payne novel afterward; seeing how much they managed to squeeze into 90 minutes makes the film even more impressive in retrospect.