What I Think About Movies I've Seen

Michael Cera plays a character named Nick Twisp. He's a shy, nerdy high school student who's never had a noteworthy female relationship. His parents (played by Jean Smart and Steve Buscemi) are divorced and his mother is rather promiscuous. Her current fling (played by Zach Galifianakis) finds himself with a few people after him, so they decide to get away for a time and wind up in a friend's mobile home in a trailer park. While there, Nick meets Sheeni (Portia Doubleday) and they hit it off but they know that they won't be able to make it work because Nick is only there for a short period of time. They devise an intricate plan to try to get Nick's father a job in the area and for Nick to live with him, but his mom won't just let that happen so he needs to do something bad enough for her to kick him out and send him there. Nick devises a mischievous alter-ego, which he names Francois Dillinger, that he will use to help him with the dirty work.

I first saw this movie in October at the Austin Film Festival. I had seen the trailer before that, and while I liked it, I was afraid that the movie itself wouldn't be able to live up to it. I was happy to see that I was wrong, and it really is a pretty funny movie throughout, although I do think that the trailer gives away more than it should. After having seen it a second time, I will say that it doesn't have quite the rewatchability that I would have liked, so it's not necessarily something that I intend to buy on DVD so I can see it again and again, but it is still a pretty funny movie. It does rely a bit too much on Juno-esque quirky dialog, and the scheme to get Nick and Sheeni to be able to stay together was pretty convoluted, but it's probably worth seeing at least once.