Teenager Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) creates alter ego François (left) in order to win his dream girl in Miguel Arteta's comedy Youth in Revolt. (Chuy Chvez/Dimension Films/Alliance Films)

Youth in Revolt comes on with all the bravado of a bratty teenager, opening to the heavy breathing of 16-year-old Nick Twisp (Michael Cera), holed up in his room, indulging in his favourite pastime: masturbation.

It’s a fleeting moment of joy for Nick, and viewers will soon relate. While Youth in Revolt’s edgy intro promises a dark, comic look at the hormonal chaos raging inside the average hoodie-sporting, corduroy-clad adolescent male, it quickly devolves into something far less interesting – a lame teen comedy where the laughs arrive in sloppy spurts.

There’s something delicious about Youth in Revolt's dual-personality premise — in part because it allows Michael Cera to get outside of his usual fumbling, deer-in-the-headlights routine.

Adapted from C.D. Payne’s beloved teen novel, Miguel Arteta’s film begins with a decent set-up. Surrounded by a gallery of oversexed role models that includes his man-hungry mother (Jean Smart), her deadbeat boyfriend (Zack Galifianakis) and a self-involved dad (Steve Buscemi) who’s hooked up with a barely legal bimbo, Nick leads a life of quiet misery in Oakland, Calif. He spends his days poring over sex books and his nights agonizing over the thought of dying a virgin.

Things begin to look up on a trailer-park family vacation, when Nick meets Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), a precocious, arty dream girl who’s well versed in Serge Gainsbourg records and Jean-Paul Belmondo films. The pent-up youngster has met his ideal, but Nick knows that his own Sinatra-loving nerd routine isn’t going to help him bed Sheeni anytime soon. As he muses, in an irritating voiceover, “In the movies, it’s the good guy that gets the girl. In real life, it’s usually the prick.” Enter François Dillinger (Cera again), a suave doppelganger who coaches Nick in the sullen, badass moves he’ll need to get his girl.

There’s something delicious about this dual-personality premise — in part because it allows Cera to get outside of his usual fumbling, deer-in-the-headlights routine. In tight pants and a sleazy moustache, François is a hedonistic monster, setting off literal and figurative explosions wherever he goes with lascivious lines like “I want to tickle your belly button … from the inside.” The role requires confidence, and Cera is up for the challenge, changing his posture to something resembling a swagger and dropping his voice to a deeper, more assertive register. As both Nick and François, Cera has wicked comic timing, something I suspect he’s been quietly honing while slumming in tired comedies post-Juno.

Geeky Nick's (Cera) desire for Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) has unpredictable consequences. (Chuy Chvez/Dimension Films/Alliance Films)But shortly after Nick’s alter ego arrives, screenwriter Gustin Nash starts floundering, and it’s painful to see the movie going off the rails. Payne’s source material was episodic in nature, with each of Nick’s journal entries introducing new bizarre characters and progressively absurd antics. But this style doesn’t carry well to the screen. Youth in Revolt the movie feels like a bunch of random set pieces and plot points haphazardly strung together. Some of these bits work as standalones – a late-night scene in Sheeni’s dorm room captures some of the trashy horndog humour of old chestnuts like Private School. But more often than not, isolated scenes involving underdeveloped, context-less characters — including a Zen-like stoner named Paul (Justin Long) — fall flat.

This messiness would probably be forgivable if the movie was genuinely funny, but the gags in Youth in Revolt leave a bitter aftertaste. Save for a nutty scene involving Fred Willard and a bag of 'shrooms, the humour in the film is surprisingly nasty. Most of the characters are treated with disdain, and range from moronic religious zealots to belching macho buffoons to some slutty women.

In the end, you’ll be longing for more of François, who at least knows how to have a good time. He’d undoubtedly have some colourful advice at the ready for all of us – something along the lines of not wasting time on a tease of a movie that has no intention of ever putting out.

Youth in Revolt opens Jan. 8.

Lee Ferguson writes about the arts for CBC News.