Theater Review: The Unexpected Greatness of Michael Cera, in This Is Our Youth
9 / 10
Michael Cera, he of the turtle face and pipe-cleaner arms, has cornered the market on screen nerdism to the point you would think there was nothing left for him to mine from the indignations of the socially awkward. Turns out, given material deep enough, there is. He's found that material in Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth, and under Anna D. Shapiro's superlative direction uses it to fuel an unforgettable performance, the more so for marking his New York stage debut. As the overliteral, quasi-Asperger's lost-soul 19-year-old Warren Straub...he digs so far into the character's drugged-out disappointment you see only the shadows of it rippling the surface. Surprisingly that's enough; he's a triumph.
