Let’s face the facts: if you’ve already jumped off the Michael Cera bandwagon, this movie will probably not prompt you to jump back on. However, if you’re still straddling the fence, you might be pleased to see that his character in Youth in Revolt is a natural progression for Cera. It is not a full disengagement from the characteristics that made him so endearing to begin with, but it adds a welcome new layer.

Youth in Revolt is based on the first book in a series by C.D. Payne, published in 1993. Touted as a relatable new voice for teenagers, the book’s protagonist Nick Twisp became a popular “Holden Caulfield” type for their generation.

Nick is an old soul in a teenager’s body, preferring French cinema and the crooning of Frank Sinatra to typical high school shenanigans. Consequently, he has few friends, and in lieu of any actual relationships with girls, he studies a well-worn sex manual, bracing himself for the fateful day when sex might become a reality.

As is typical of most teenage comedies, the adults in Nick’s life are a bunch of buffoons. His trashy but well meaning mother (Jean Smart) has a loser boyfriend, Jerry (Zach Galifianakis), who lives with them. She spends her days in bathrobes and negligees, sporting a different fake hairpiece every day, while Jerry wears a “three-wolf moon t-shirt” without a trace of irony, making them a trailer park couple of dazzling mediocrity.

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Before getting a chance to sit down and talk with Dean Haspiel (American Splendor, The Quitter, Billy Dogma) at the Alternative Press Expo, I met him at the Isotope Comics Lounge on the eve of APE weekend for a pre-APE Isotope in-store bash. Currently, Haspiel is but one artist that is part of a larger collective of storytellers at ACT-I-VATE.

Recently, October saw the recent release of The ACT-I-VATE Primer by IDW Publishing, featuring new and original stories. While at the Isotope, I discovered Haspiel is as gracious and as nice as I could have imagined just sitting and talking with him as he signed and sketched a head shot of Harvey Pekar in my copy of The Quitter.

That night talking generally about the unique positivity that courses through the comic industry, Haspiel signs my Pekar sketch advising me to “never quit.” It’s good advice.

Needless to say, I was excited to sit down and talk with Haspiel again on Sunday as APE was coming to a close.

Joey Pangilinan: How did you come to start working with Harvey?

Dean Haspiel: Here’s a long answer to a simple question. I grew up reading superhero comics. My dream was to become a penciler and draw for Marvel. I didn’t know there were other comics that could be non-superhero or not published by DC and Marvel. I started to expand my horizons and got hungrier for the medium.

In the early ‘80s, I discovered American Splendor, at a place called Soho Zat in lower Manhattan, which had a lot of alternative and underground comics, and I discovered a whole bunch of different types of works.

So, there I am reading the Fantastic Four, and suddenly I come across semi-autobiographical comics and stuff like Yummy Fur by Chester Brown, and it just blew my mind. I started out being a fan, like most people are, of Harvey Pekar, or whoever else they admire.

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Since playing the leading role in Iron Man Robert Downey, Jr. has rocketed back onto the film scene and everyone it seems wants to work with him. The latest is director Todd Phillips in his new film Due Date. If you don’t recognize Phillips’ name you’ve certainly heard of his last project, The Hangover, which grossed over $400 million worldwide. With that film such a critical success, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Due Date become another hit.

Downey leads an all star cast including Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover, Bored to Death), Michelle Monaghan (Made of Honor) and Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx, who starred opposite Downey in The Soloist. Due Date also brings back much of the talent behind The Hangover and sounds like it will draw on the same elements that made that film so hilarious:

“Downey plays Peter Highman, an expectant first-time father whose wife’s due date is a mere five days away.  As Peter hurries to catch a flight home from Atlanta to be at her side for the birth, his best intentions go completely awry when a chance encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) forces Peter to hitch a ride with Ethan—on what turns out to be a cross-country road trip that will ultimately destroy several cars, numerous friendships and Peter’s last nerve.”

Downey and Galifianakis’ journey will be as much a road trip on film as it is in real life.  Production is set to take place across the USA in Georgia, New Mexico, Arizona and Los Angeles. Due Date is scheduled for a Fall 2010 release.

(Note: This review may contain some spoilers. Be warned.)

The  bottom line for The Hangover is that it is continually funny. Where with most comedies these days (Like Wedding Crashers) you remember “funny moments” and not that the entire movie was funny. This entire movie was funny. From the moment “Bearded-Wonder” Zack Galifianakis hugged it out with Justin Bartha in nothing but a jock strap and t-shirt all the way to Ed Helms kicking his over-controlling girlfriend to the curb, this movie was funny.

Directed by Old School’s Todd Phillips, this is another comedic gem. Most of the people in this movie had always been supporting actors. Bradley Cooper most memorably known as Sidney Bristow’s reporter pal from Alias to Ed Helms from The Office. This movie, however, should prove to be the jumping off point for Zack Galifianakis’ career as the box office receipts shows that no one was interested in Land of the Lost and he was the funniest thing in the movie.

The Hangover is simple: four guys head to Vegas for a bachelor party and wake up the next morning with the groom missing, a tiger in the bathroom, and yaddi yaddi yadda–the trailer shows you all that. What it doesn’t show you is the non-stop-smart-as-shit one-liners performed naturally by three actors who are the cream of the crop in straight-faced dry sarcasm.

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