Youth in Revolt

Best known for the quirky comedies Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl and more recently working on the TV series Ugly Betty and Six Feet Under , Miguel Arteta returns to the big screen with an amusing, inconsequential black comedy set in northern California. The central character, Nick Twisp, is an intelligent 16-year-old virgin played by the currently ubiquitous Michael Cera (star of Juno and Superbad ). He's from a broken home, surrounded by cranks, eccentrics and weirdos, all played by familiar character actors. Nick falls in love with a smart, kookie girl addicted to all things French, and, as an aid to pursuing her, he creates for himself an alternative personality or "alter id" in the form of François Dillinger, a suave, moustachioed agent provocateur. Under François's malign influence, he embarks on a succession of dangerously destructive adventures, one of which involves causing several million dollars' worth of damage in Berkeley. Highly entertaining.