Cera breaks out (finally) in 'Youth in Revolt'

Certain Neanderthal movie critics - me, for instance - have been after Michael Cera to cut loose for some time now.

Ditch the hoodie, get some barbells, date Tila Tequila. Maybe play a drug addict on "Law and Order."

He's got a good thing going with his irresistible nerd persona, but that only works until people resist, as perhaps they started to do in "Year One."

Well, Cera goes us one better in "Youth In Revolt," playing both himself and an amusing inversion of himself - it's "Fight Club" crossed with puberty.

Cera starts the movie in familiar territory as a timid sensitive dork, passively suffering as his mom (Jean Smart) trots out a procession of exploitive boyfriends (Zach Galifianakis, Ray Liotta).

He's sent to spend a summer with his dad (Steve Buscemi) at a mobile home park where he meets a stunning young blonde (Portia Doubleday) of ersatz sophistication and professed preference for French New Wave (a comic, Americanized version of the girl in "An Education").

Cera falls hard, and when he realizes he's not formidable enough for her, starts to take advice from an imaginary, French existentialist doppleganger - a "supplementary persona" who calls himself Francois Dillinger and wears shades and a silly mustache.

It's a gag that never fails to get laughs, in part because Cera is a gifted comic actor, in part because he gets to go so flagrantly against type - Dillinger is a ruthless, self-serving man of action.

Doubleday makes a nice debut as the girl on whom he has this massive crush. There's unexpected dimension to the role, and she functions as more than a mere object, even though the script boxes her in as the story unfolds.

And the supporting cast is first-rate - you can add Fred Willard, May Kay Place, M. Emmet Walsh, Justin Long, all of whom contribute laughs.

The movie can't resist a few lame shots at small-town religious types, and it's deadpan tone is a little tired. Even sporadic bouts of animation, funny as they are, feel derivative.

Director Miguel Arteta, though, does a decent job condensing C.D. Payne's rambling, expansive novel, excising a great deal of material, but preserving the author's attitude and point of view.