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Actually it's a study of two characters. First there's Nick, a virginal Oakland teen from a broken home, clearly far superior than the surroundings he has to work with. To give you a sense of just how broken said home is, Steve Buscemi plays Nick's dad, and his mom (an eye-opening Jean Smart -- who knew she had the range?) is dating a hustler named Jerry, played by Zach Galifianakis.
Circumstances soon take Nick, Mom, and Jerry to Clear Lake (Northern California's answer to the Catskills, but even more depressing) for a week, and here Nick's story gets its jump-start. He meets a girl named Sheeni (Portia Doubleday) at the local trailer park and is instantly smitten. And while she tolerates his nebbish Nickness, Nick dreams of bigger, edgier things... hopefully involving the two of them.
That dream is manifest in Nick's alter-ego, Francois Dillinger, who appears on screen alongside Nick much like the devil on his shoulder, but full-size and with a horrifying pencil moustache. Francois talks dirty and fills Nick's head with bad ideas -- usually all in the name of attempting to get him (them?) into bed with someone, preferably Sheeni.
The film rumbles along with Nick/Francois undertaking all manner of crimes petty and felonious, and when he semi-inadvertently causes a Berkeley storefront to go up in flames, Nick finds himself on the run and pursuing Sheeni from Clear Lake to prep school and back again. (One plot to get her out of the school involves gently poisoning her so she falls asleep in class and is expelled.)
Nick's adventures are those of any good juvenile delinquent, and your average Holden Caulfield fanatic will find his tale fun, but there's nothing much here that's new aside from facial hair on Cera. Director Miguel Arteta tries for edgy, but never quite gets there, stranding Youth in Revolt in a dippy middle ground of easy gags (Fred Willard playing stoned) and lengthy exposition. For a good chunk of the film -- cross-dressing? dorm-room sexcapades? -- you might even find yourself reminded of a less raunchy version of Porky's. Certainly nothing wrong with that, but Salinger would hardly be amused.
