In a summer saturated with comedies, each movie has promised to blow away the competition with its unique humor; however, between lame romantic comedies a la License to Wed, politically incorrect crude humor in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and the upcoming Balls of Fury, this season's laugh-out-loud comedies have not been up to par. Enter Superbad and suddenly, there seems to be a purpose to summer cinema again.
From the makers of the hits The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up comes this delightful ode to high-school awkwardness. Cliché? Of course. Superbad has all the makings of the typical, wanna-be-John-Hughes portrait of high school with teen drama resulting in mayhem that could have realistically happened but never really does. What sets Superbad apart from the rest of the teen flicks are its strong cast of up-and-coming actors, the screenplay written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg based on their own teenage experiences and the hint of a moral twisted into the plot.
One of the best parts of the movie is just how bluntly it approaches awkward teen themes like sex, underage drinking and disrespect for authority. A snapshot into the male teenage mind, the script is chock-full of penises, gettin' laid and fake IDs. The brilliance of Superbad lies in its themes and the fact that they are so relatable. Every experience could have happened to you or someone you know.
The plot is simple: Seth is played by Jonah Hill, who has held small parts in so many comedies during the year that it is great to see him star in something on his own. Evan is played by Michael Cera, of the cult hit and my personal favorite, "Arrested Development." The two are seniors, best friends and facing separation when life postgraduation whisks them off to different universities. With graduation parties abounding, Seth scores an invite to a hot girl's party and comes up with a brilliant plan to help Evan and him learn to navigate the female body: get girls drunk enough so that they'll hook up with them. Let's face it. The shy, uber-awkward Evan and the obnoxious, chubby Seth are not going to get laid on their own. Plan in hand, they go about procuring the alcohol to get said girls wasted.
Enter their friend Fogell, played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, with his newly minted fake identity: McLovin, a 25-year-old from Hawaii. Fogell is an atypical freak and geek, complete with a 12-year-old body, nerdy glasses and a pre-pubescent voice. While the ID holds up, however, the night is not complete for the three without crazy hijinks: sketchy parties, getting hit by cars (multiple times) and memorable interactions with Seth and Evan's dream girls, which don't end up bad, but don't end up good either... A crucial subplot involves Rogen as Officer Michaels and SNL's Bill Hader as Officer Slater. They play cops who befriend McLovin and give him an inside look at the adventures of having power and a gun ("a second cock... if one of your cocks could kill someone"), emphasizing how boys never grow out of immaturity or escape their insecurities.
The bottom line is this: Superbad is super good. Sitting in the theater was a hearing test, straining to discern the next punch line and foul-mouthed exclamation over continuous laughter. One of the most sexually explicit movies since Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Superbad is a multimedia personification of intense awkwardness and shows how everyone -- the drunk party girl, the shy kid, the adults that never quite grow up and the best friends facing an unknown future -- has insecurities and yet still keeps on rolling with the punches.
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