Will Youth In Revolt be the Movie Where Michael Cera Finally Sheds His Man-Boy Cocoon?

There's a stage in the metamorphosis of the butterfly called the "pupa" where the caterpillar nestles inside a hardened shell as it begins its transformation. Usually, the pupa stage lasts no longer than a month. Every now and then, though, we see curious cases of organisms bucking evolutionary trends. Take Michael Cera, who's been trapped in a man-boy cocoon of his own devising in the six years since he emerged as the endearingly awkward George Michael on Arrested Development.

Cera has been accused of playing what amounts to the same character over and over in all his screen appearances, and that's a fair criticism; a cursory look at Arrested Development, Superbad, Juno, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Year One and Paper Hearts reveals a damning rap sheet of one-note character acting. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, since he seems to be the poster boy for the "sensitive male" revolution transforming cinema protagonists everywhere. But Cera personally runs the career-stifling risk of typecasting. "How long will it be before cracks finally start to emerge in that well-worn chrysalis?" ask fans everywhere, breathlessly clutching their zip-up hoodies and frozen banana sticks.

Enter the Youth In Revolt trailer. In its scant 2:24 runtime, Cera offers a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement that yes, he's been pigeonholed as a brooding adolescent, and he's all the more eager to flex his acting chops. Based on the first book in C.D. Payne's "Nick Twisp" series, Cera plays the sexually-frustrated Nick, who constructs a badass mustachioed sunglasses-wearing alter ego to better pursue his objet d'amour.

That's right: Cera's on-screen flipouts have the potential to no longer be ironic. Between this and his starring role in the adaptation of Scott Pilgrim, Cera might even get to portray an actual grownup in a movie before too long. For now, though, we'll have to be content to watch those butterfly wings peek out little by little.

Watch the Youth In Revolt trailer: