Movie 115: Superbad

Best friends Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) aren’t exactly popular, but two weeks before graduation Seth is teamed up with a girl in home ec who invites him to a party. Using other friend Fogell (Chris Mintz-Plasse) to buy booze with his new fake ID, which makes him 25 year old McLovin from Hawaii, they plan to try and get laid before they run out of time. Until everything goes wrong

I didn’t say hilarity ensues! Fuck….

Every ten years or so there’s a good movie like this. In the 80’s there’s obviously the Hughes flicks but they’re probably not quite in the same genre. Ferris Bueller is close though. Then came Dazed and Confused. Next there’s American Pie, just the first one as the second is a college movie. There’s a lot of drek in this genre, but Superbad is the next in the pattern.

And yes I know I’m late to the party on this being a good film. For most people this is the first time their introduced to the main players. Particularly McLovin. This is my third CMP movie though so I benefit from not associating him with this character for ever. He pretty much plays the same role as he generally does though. Same with Cera and I assume with Hill.

And pretty much the same with Seth Rogen as one of the cops who hang with McLovin.

Many of you will have seen this film, so I’ll get a bit bullet pointy with the good parts. First off, they portray being a teenager very realistically. At least this kind of teenager. The guys swear a lot, they are somewhat fascinated with the female of the species and most importantly they haven’t got a clue what they are doing and are a bit scared. The bromance relationship between the two leads and they way they act with each other throughout the film is also spot on. I can’t get in to it too much as I don’t want to spoil anything, but I can identify with the relationship between these two guys.

Much of the cast seems to be the right age too. There’s a few background people that are now semi well known in their own right, playing people in there early twenties which fits. Nice to see kids cast as kids for once.

There’s also plenty of crazy comedy and ridiculous situations too. But importantly, for me at least, it’s not heavy on the gross out humour. There’s some, but the film doesn’t lean heavily on it.

This is a great comedy with note perfect performances that portrays what its like to be a 17 year old boy pretty damned well. If you haven’t watched it yet and you were once one, go fucking see it. I guess girls will probably like it too though!

Next up: Seven Samurai