There are plenty of teen comiedies about trying to get laid and trying to party hard. The bad ones are juvenile and exploitative, the good ones make us laugh, and the great ones seem to speak for their generation. Superbad, co-written by Seth Rogen (who wrote The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up), is the latter type of movie: a sensitive, crude, hysterical, and honest portrayal of teens.It's two years before high school graduation, and teenage buddies Evan (Michael Sera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) are ready to party and get laid. Evan is polite, nervous, always apologizing, and infatuated with Becca (Martha MacIsaac), whose flirtations he is oblivious to. Seth, an overweight kid who curses and talks more trash about women than any movie character since Jay in Clerks, has the hots for Jules (Emma Stone). Unfortunately, Evan and Seth have very few friends apart from each other, spending most nights in Evan's basement drinking beers and watching online porn. And with them going to different colleges in the fall, they feel the stress of their upcoming separation.
Evan and Seth see a big chance for sex and partying when Jules invites them to her party. The two friends start planning, helped by their annoying friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) whose fake license leads Seth to promise Jules that he'll bring the booze for the party.
But the course of teenagers never does run smooth. Fogell's fake I.D. only says "McLovin" and when Fogell is buying the booze he winds up in the middle of a robbery and the new best friend of two party-animal cops (played by Bill Hader and Seth Rogen) who take him all over town. Meanwhile Evan and Seth wind up at an adult party surrounded by strangers, as they try to procure the promised alcohol for the party.
Superbad is a wonderful movie. The characters are all very believable, dealing with the stresses and promises of being a teenager. (The two cops are very over the top, but they still supply lots of laughs.) The movie is both funny and honest, as Evan and Seth try to live up to all their big talk while dealing with who they really are. And the laughs come from beginning to end. Superbad will be a classic about what it is to be a teenager -- and what a great comedy is.
Overall Grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch
1 comment:
Great review; I loved Superbad as well. It felt incredibly familiar while also being new and original -- maybe that's what it means to speak for a generation.
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