CAST: Michael Cera - Nick Twisp
Portia Doubleday - Sheeni Saunders

PLOT: While his trailer trash parents teeter on the edge of divorce, Nick Twisp sets his sights on dream girl Sheeni Saunders, hoping that she'll be the one to take away his virginity.


This film is in the 'lose my virginity before high school ends genre', aspiring to such films as PCU, American Pie, and Superbad, though in it's own way. No crazy party scenes in this movie. Instead, Nick Twisp moves through a field of hollow, scarecrow characters (explained later) in an effort to court Sheeni Saunders.

After she explains to him that her dream boy is a French 'rebel' named François, he finds himself accompanied by his alter ego, also named François. With the 'help' of his alter ego, he tries to prove to Sheeni that he is 'bad' enough for her, leading to a series of mis-adventures.

Sadly, unlike the mentioned films, this movie has all the humor of a Magic Bullet infomercial. There were very few laughs to be had. The pretentious intellectualism of the main characters really grinds my gears. Unlike Juno, which this movie is most indebted too stylistically, the characters feel overdone. I just didn't care for them and their stupid story whatsoever. Indeed, I nearly walked out two thirds into the movie, and was shocked to find out the whole movie was merely an hour in a half.

Another problem, the 'scarecrow' characters. I don't mean that there were actually scary characters, more that most of the characters in this movie were merely scarecrows, placed in specific locations within the movie's plot to guide the story from one section to the next. Once their bit role was done, they disappeared in the distance.

Beyond the two main, lame characters, no-one was developed. The cameo roles played by Ray Liotta and Justin Long are merely to provide a pair of easy outs for the writers of this silly plot that almost runs itself over. Justin Long, as Sheeni's older brother, is particularly unconvincing, as is his role in the movie. You know he's there so the writers can kill this lame horse of a movie without adding additional footage. The only truly convincing part of this whole movie is when Nick goes after Sheeni's 'ex'-boyfriend Trent, towards the end, that was the first time when I felt something human while watching this movie.

Acting wise, Michael Cera plays himself essentially. We've all seen the awkward teenage act, and I begin to wonder if there's anything else to his game. Even his 'evil' alter ego has a bit of awkwardness. Portia Doubleday is convincing as the love interest. Steve Buscemi feels wasted in his role as Nick Twisp's father. Zach Galafianakis is also completely wasted.

3 out of 10. Lame.