Superbad

Aug 19, 2007

Written By: Mark Casey

Rating:

Jules: You scratch our backs, we’ll scratch yours…
Seth: Yeah, well, the funny thing about my back is, it’s on my cock.

If you can’t appreciate one or more aspects of comedic gold in the above snippet of dialogue, then you probably aren’t ready for Superbad.

The good news? Writer Seth Rogen, whose high school life the film is said to be based upon, doesn’t care if you’re ready or not.

Rogen stars in two other Judd Apatow productions, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, both of which ended up being stealth chick flicks—but he stood out each time as the best aspect of the movie. This time, he was given complete creative control (small aspects of his life and personality were implanted in the former films as well), and he did not disappoint.

And, while those other films (and most comedies) try to have something for everyone, this one is—finally!—one for the rest of us. You know, those of us who already realize that sometimes people fall in love, and lots of times putting yourself in a new situation (read: being a ‘fish out of water’) is what you need to “grow” as a person.

This is a film for those of us who know what we want, and when we don’t want romance or life-changing events, we want something fucking different, not watered-down half-measures of all of the above.

So the film opens on two best friends—a good sign right off the bat. The first, Seth (played pitch-perfectly by Jonah Hill), is driving to pick up the second, Evan (Arrested Development’s Michael Cera), but Seth simply cannot wait the thirty seconds to talk to Evan in person, so he calls him up.

“I think I know what porn site I want to subscribe to in college next year,” Seth proclaims, and then goes on to describe a website in which random women are picked up on the street, and eventually have sex in the back of a van. Evan doesn’t miss a beat and responds, “I don’t know, I’m just sick of all this amateur stuff, you know? If I’m going to be paying for it, I want some production value, like some lighting and music.” “Well, I’m sorry that the Coen brothers don’t direct the porn I watch” Seth chirps back, “They’re really hard to get a hold of.”

Yes, friends, this is not your average comedy. It’s not a sitcom-styled movie full of commonplace observations, where you chuckle because ‘Oh right, sometimes waiters can be snooty,’ then forget all about the movie an hour after leaving the theater, halfway through your Pasta Primavera.

This is a movie that sticks with you.

Love it or hate it, you remember it. And, as long as you haven’t decided to ruin your life by getting obnoxiously offended by every scrap of humor on the crass side, you’re going to love it. Every single joke is over the top, and you either laugh out loud because you know exactly what they’re talking about, or you laugh out loud because it’s so damn weird.

Seriously, I haven’t audibly laughed, loudly, in a theater since I was like 15. I did so several times during this film, and the whole theater was with me.

The plot is pretty basic, which some people (morons) might say is a drawback, but it’s a movie that never makes excuses for what it is: a series of jokes, loosely tied together around a central theme: youth, sex and partying.

Sound good to you? Good, let’s proceed.

Seth and Evan, along with their third wheel of a friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), aren’t popular. All they’ve had through high school is each other, and they’re fine with that. But, in their last summer together, they want to fulfill all of their young dreams: to party and get wasted with the cool kids, and to have sex with the women of their dreams.

Still with me? I don’t know why the hell you wouldn’t be.

So thanks to Fogell’s (aka McLovin’s) newly-acquired fake ID, the trio lucks into being responsible for buying alcohol for a party being hosted by their dreamgirls. Shortly afterward, Fogell ends up spending an evening with the police (it’s anything but what you think), and Seth and Evan must go on an adventure trying to find free alcohol for the party.

Rogen himself, along with Bill Hader, play two cops who take Fogell along with them for the night. For all you adults out there who think you won’t like this movie because it’s “for kids,” get off your damn high horse and see it for Seth Rogen, damnit. The police characters go on an adolescent journey of self re-discovery themselves, and it makes us all want to go back.

I was recently asked if this film was an updated American Graffiti, and I responded that it was not, but I realize now that it very well may be. There is little of the overwhelming nostalgia of Graffiti—none of the bittersweet “last night together” immediacy (they have a whole summer ahead of them), nor any of the menacing tinges of socio-political strife from poverty and the Vietnam war, and due to that, it’s safe to say that Superbad undeniably lacks the heaps of emotional depth one gets in films like American Graffiti and Fandango. But I wonder: is this a product of the films, or of the times we live in?

Superbad is the tale of privileged children, living securely, assured of their future. This was hardly the situation the average middle-class child faced in the ’60s and ’70s, but nowadays it’s the rule, not the exception.

Security isn’t everything, though, and there are lessons to be learned in Superbad. Seth and Evan learn that maybe the thought of losing each other is far worse than of never gaining their loves. And, as a stiff ‘get a grip’ message to the youth of our time (myself included), we all learn that the drunken “hookup” is best left as an accident, not a goal.

Is it an American Graffiti for our century? I wouldn’t go that far. But, take that film, and put it in a blender with Clerks and Mallrats, then make sure none of it happens in the ‘60s, and you’ve got Superbad. Also The Breakfast Club, but only Judd Nelson. No, fuck that. None of The Breakfast Club.

Still curious about whether this film is for you? Consider this: some movies run funny extra bits along with the credits. They could be anything. For example, some filmmakers think that outtakes are funny. Others think that little short segments elaborating on what happens to a story or character “after the film” is funny. Meanwhile, the Superbad guys think that gigantic 30-foot drawings of various penises are funny. Some are dressed up like Mr. T, others are popping out of someone’s chest Alien-style. Some are jumping off of the sinking Titanic, and still more are Robo-Penises.

That should pretty much give you your answer.

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