Teen comedies are a complex animal, especially teen comedies that focus on the awkwardness and constant fear of failure that comes with being a certain kind of teen, namely the kind that can’t get girls.

Some filmmakers avoid this problem simply by ignoring this brand of teenager, or by casting the film with inexplicably good-looking and smooth awkward teenagers. It sounds too contrived to make sense, but in all honesty you can’t blame them. Making a movie starring a truly awkward character while still finding time to be funny, realistic and endearing is hard work, and if you miss that mark, there’s no going back.

Thankfully, for all those situations when you need a loveably awkward teen movie star, the Movie Gods shined down and blessed us with Michael Cera.

Cera, who rocketed to superstardom following his work in the 2007 comedy “Superbad,” has made a career out of playing the empathetic geek. Nick Twisp, the leading nerd in “Youth In Revolt,” seems to be a role almost tailor-made for Cera’s particular brand of nervous talent.

Nick is a lonely teenager living with his mother (Jean Smart) and her truck-driving boyfriend Jerry (Zach Galifianakis) in a California neighborhood. With few friends, and even fewer female prospects, Nick struggles to find any degree of happiness in his stifling home. But when Jerry’s swindling of a trio of sailors forces the family to vacation in a trailer park several hours away, everything changes. Nick meets the girl of his dreams, the sexy, enigmatic Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), and the two quickly bond.

When the weeks’ vacation is over, the couple begins to plot a way for Nick to get kicked out of his mother’s house so he can live with his father (Steve Buscemi) closer to Sheeni. Their plan: Nick has to be bad enough that his mother won’t care that she loses child support payments. To accomplish this, Nick invents Francois Dillinger, a “supplementary persona” that’s everything Nick isn’t: smooth, amoral, sociopathic and downright dangerous.

Together, Nick and the new man inside his head embark on a series of destructive, disastrous and at times hilarious endeavors to get back to Sheeni, meeting a host of unwelcome trouble, including Sheeni’s other man, along the way.

The most important aspect of this film’s success is its tone. Arteta and screenwriter Gustin Nash lay the quirkiness on extra thick, and yet none of it ever seems anything but genuine. The film captures perfectly the dirty realities of being one of those kids that no one likes, and the exhilaration of finding that someone out there actually does like you. All the fumbling words, all the bad jokes, all the moments of cool that are accidentally pulled off, are pitch perfect. This, coupled with Arteta’s unique visual style that features, among other things, several stop-motion interludes, ensures that the feel of the film is both true to the source material and unlike anything else at the movies.

Cera is the unquestionable star of the show, carrying the film on his scrawny shoulders like a true leading man while still maintaining the adorable sense of self-deprecation that made us all love him in the first place. While he’s still up to his old tricks as Nick, playing Francois allows him to display a greater range, and a flawless dramatic transition as the two personas begin to blend together. Doubleday, in one of her first major roles, channels “Lolita” to bring Sheeni to smoldering life, and a stellar supporting cast that includes Ray Liotta and M. Emmett Walsh does the rest.

When all is said and done (with refreshing brevity, I might add), I genuinely have no complaints about this film. It’s the first truly great thing I’ve seen in 2010, and again heralds Cera as one of our finest young actors. Maybe I’m partial because it, well, reminded of me of me at that age, but this film is more than just hilarious. It’s honest.

Matt’s Call: One of the best comedies I’ve seen in a while, and one of those great odd films that you can’t lump in with anything else you’ve seen. My recommendation, do what I did, and see it with a gaggle of friends (Shout out!). If this film is any indication, 2010 looks very bright indeed.