Jun 27, 2009 Youth in Revolt - The Movie

The movie comes out on October 30 but my brother and I saw an early screener of the movie the other day, and I wanted to take a few minutes just to give it a quick review. If you've read my other blog you know that I'm a big fan of this book. I've owned a copy since 97, and I currently own 2 first editions, 1 of 3000 and 1 of 90. So naturally when my brother told me about the screener and said he had a couple of passes I was crazy excited. My hopes weren't high, but I was still ready for this thing. You might know that this movie was originally supposed to be released in December and then in February. But Dimension films is terrible. And it also seems like they're a little worried about this one.
So here it goes. First off, on a scale of 1 to 100 I give it a 77. And the only reason it doesn't get higher is the girl who played Sheenie, Portia Doubleday, was very bland and uninteresting. They also had to change the story around a lot cause the book was huge and the movie was like 95 minutes. This hurts the movie, but only a little bit. I know that it takes a lot to make stuff like this work and I can't blame the writers or directors. I would say this is one of the best movies I've ever seen that was taken from a book. More about Portia, when I think of Sheenie Saunders, I think about a super smart, funny, hot girl. While I think Portia is pretty, she doesn't exude that Sheenie quality of total control over Nick. Nick Twisp was absolutely obsessed with this girl and you don't have the time to show the audience that. In about 30 seconds you need to make the audience understand that Sheenie is irresistible, funny, smart, etc, and the way you do that is, you get a girl that's way hotter than a kid like Nick Twisp could ever get. They casted the wrong actor, but it doesn't ruin the movie. The movie was great. And I usually hate that uncomfortable, meet the parents, 40 year old virgin, type of garbage. I need intelligent humor. This movie had enough of that to make it great.
Here's my suggestion, if you haven't read the book, don't. See the movie, and then read it. If you have read the book, don't read it again right before you see the movie. Just try and see it with a fresh mind. I think it's going to be a great movie, and it will do real well money wise I think. Michael Cera is freakin huge right now, and he has a few movies coming out before YIR. This might be one of the reasons they put the movie off. They want Michael Cera's popularity to carry the people to the movies. I don't blame them. The wikipedia page says the budget was 60 million. If that's true, Dimension films is not only terrible, but some of the biggest idiots on the planet. The film could make 75/80 million, maybe 100, but 200...I don't think so. You can't put a budget of 60 mill on a movie that's going to make 75-100 million. There's not enough play.
All in all, I really liked the movie, so did Tom. I will see it again when it comes out, maybe even show my support and see it opening weekend.