“Didi” is a gentle but sharp-edged tale of a California teen coming to terms with who he is, a movie that invites grimaces of recognition even as it advertises its “different culture” status.

Writer-director Sean Wang’s debut feature fits neatly within the coming-of-age genre, but benefits from a few novel touches.

First of all, the kid’s Chinese American and has to live with stereotypes — the mother and nagging granny who speak Mandarin at home — and cope with stereotypes, the nickname “Wang Wang” and the phrase “You’re so ASIAN” remarks of his middle school peers.

Secondly, he’s a social misfit in the most benign sense. “Wang Wang,” called “Didi” at home and named “Chris” on his birth certificate, is a screwup in the most cringeworthy, recognizable sense. He’s 13, with no clue about girls despite the fact that he has an older sister whom he torments and steals from when he should be getting style, behavior and work ethic tips from her. Didi says the wrong — often vulgar — thing to her, and that tactlessness/cluelessness extends to friends and classmates, all of whom are in a hurry to grow up, most of whom are managing it better than Didi.

The third novel touch in Wang’s film is the cliches it dodges, even if it does that more bluntly than deftly. If this is about “finding your tribe,” it’s also a story of rejecting and then accepting the one you’re born into. Those Sk8tRbois who let you hang because you pass yourself off as a “skateboard filmer” might not be the right hang, any more than the girl you crush on or the gauche pals you’ve held yourself back with since elementary school.

Alienated? Not naturally “talented” as a filmmaker? Maybe the AV Club is for you.

Wang’s period piece is set in 2008, where Didi (Izaac Wang, no relation) is living and learning from his Internet/social media addiction. MySpace is peaking, and there’s nothing that a Youtube tutorial can’t teach you.

“How to kiss” might come up. Especially if he finds a way to seem appealing to the fetching Madi (Mahaela Park) at a “Superbad” watching party at her house.

“How to film skateboarding” would be handy to watch, once he’s stumbled into Donovan (Chiron Cillia Denk) and his older crew of skaters/graffit-markers. He’s been posting stupid things he and his friends do online for some time. Delete those and maybe he can bluff his way into something cool.

But for now, he’s got pal Soup (Aaron Chang) and cool poseur Fahad (Raul Dial) as besties, willing and perhaps even able to steer him through the rough waters of early puberty. If they can stop pranking each other and others and get past that tween-to-teen “gross” boy phase, that is.

Mom (Joan Chen) is a frustrated artist raising Didi and college-bound older sister Vivian (Shirley Chen, no relation) and coping with non-stop nagging (in Mandarin, with English subtitles) from her aged mother-in-law (Zhang Li Hua). She’s doing this alone, as the breadwinner/husband is still earning a good living back in Taiwan.

“Didi” is a digital age baby, not the best student, ill-mannered in the extreme, disrespectul of his mother and using the Internet in every way he can think of to connect with Madi, skateboard culture, the vast culture of movies he’s never seen and the like.

But can all that digital stalking and “research” smooth out his rough social edges and help him fit in?

Our young star is just open-faced enough to let us see every stumble, social miscalculation and embarassment Did experiences, open-hearted enough to make us feel bad for him in the most sincere “been there/messed that up” sense.

Chen gives a soulful fury to mother Chungsing, leaning into cultural peer pressure, but Americanizing in ways that make her tolerant of her son’s many missteps and her rebellious daughter’s disappointing UC-San Diego admission.

Writer-director Wang isn’t splitting the atom here, and the film’s variations from the tropes for this genre aren’t unique or all that revelatory. But “Didi” makes a most relatable tour guide in helping us remember what running straight into a wall as you hit your teens was like.

Rating: R, drug and alcohol use involving teens, profanity, sexual references

Cast: Izaac Wang, Mahaela Park, Raul Dial, Chiron Cillia Denk, Shirley Chen and Joan Chen.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Sean Wang. A Focus Features release on Apple, Youtube and Amazon.

Running time: 1:33