Michael Cera's 'Youth in Revolt' Moved to 2010

So I just learned (or is it learnt?) from Dimension Films that Youth in Revolt has been benched for the rest of the year. It was supposed to open October 30th, a suddenly busy destination on the fall calendar. We've got This is It, the Michael Jackson documentary, arriving on October 28th, and then that Friday features Boondock Saints II, The House of the Dead, and the similarly positioned Gentlemen Broncos. Clearly, something had to give. And that something is Michael Cera. His new split personality comedy, which sports not only a groovy mustache but also a funny trailer, is the odd man out and Dimension will now release it on January 15th, which is a little less cluttered with new releases, but has the added obstruction of a dozen or so late 2009 awards flicks that people need to catch up on. The Lovely Bones, for example, won't even go wide until January 15th even though the coasts get it a month earlier. Now, without looking at the downside of shuffling a release date by a couple months, this is probably a more strategic move for Dimension this fall than a reflection on Youth in Revolt. Remember, the same company plucked The Road out of a late 2008 release so it could focus on pushing The Reader for Oscar consideration. This year, the studio has The Road back in the fold as well as Nine, which is probably one of the slam dunks of the season; there are just too many Oscar-baiting participants for it not to be. So because there's a history, we'll go easy on Youth in Revolt. It was likely to get squeezed out once October 30th got overrun with films and keeping its profile up would take away from Dimension's real push later this year. Plus, it genuinely does look pretty funny, and you can play that as well in January as October.