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Rating: 4.5 stars

All movies seen on 12/03/2007

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Superbad (2007)

Directed by Greg Mottola

Comedy

Most recently watched by lordofthemovies, zombiefreak, danfinn, sleestakk, GMOM65, Drew73

Overview

Two co-dependent high school seniors are forced to deal with separation anxiety after their plan to stage a booze-soaked party goes awry.

Rated R | Length 113 minutes

Actors

Jonah Hill | Michael Cera | Christopher Mintz-Plasse | Bill Hader | Seth Rogen | Martha MacIsaac | Emma Stone | Aviva | Joe Lo Truglio | Kevin Corrigan | Clement Blake | Erica Vittina Phillips | Joe Nunez | Dave Franco | Marcella Lentz-Pope | Scott Gerbacia | Laura Seay | Roger Iwami | Clint Mabry | Stacy Edwards | Mark Rogen | Charlie Hartsock | Dona Hardy | Charley Rossman | Carla Gallo | Ben Best | Jody Hill | Kevin Breznahan | David Krumholtz | Mousa Kraish | Nicholas Jasenovec | Martin Starr | Keith Loneker | Matthew McKane | Lauren Miller | Peter Salett | Rakefet Abergel | Brooke Dillman | Michael Naughton | Steve Bannos | Casey Margolis | Laura Marano | Matthew Bass | Aurora Snow | Jenna Haze | Ted Haigh | Michael Fennessey | Brian Huskey | Clark Duke | Stephen Borrello IV | Naathan Phan | Pamella D'Pella | Danny McBride | Cortney Palm

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

This originally appeared as a DVD review for PopSyndicate.com in 2007.

Guy love, that’s all it is.

When the trailers for Superbad aired initially, they were wholly unfunny and convinced me that Judd Apatow had finally hit a dud after lively projects like Freaks & Geeks, Undeclared and, more recently, The 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. As such, I stayed away until the DVD hit my mailbox. I was wrong.

Superbad is the story of Evan and Seth, two desperate loner highschoolers and lifelong friends who finally get invited to a party. Seth, trying to get the eye of Jules, volunteers to bring alcohol. To maneuver their way through the minefield of being underage, they rope in their nasally scarecrow-like friend Fogell, who has just scored a fake ID. Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as smoothly as planned and the three find themselves pulled in different directions. Fogell, or McLovin as the fake ID says, is attacked at the liquor store by a mugger and is forced to talk to the cops. Fogell still bags his alcohol, but is taken for a ride with the cops who just want to prove they’re cool and not the pigs that everyone thinks they are. Seth and Evan think he’s being arrested, so those two take off and wind up at another party first, thanks to a guy who hit Evan with his car, where they try to steal beer to take to their party but are caught up in a fight, dancing and an incident involving menstrual blood on Seth’s leg. As tensions rise, the two blow up at each other because they’ve been burying resentment down deep centered around the fact that they’re going to be separated for the first time when they leave for college. Finally, the three end up at the party, Fogel with the liquor, and Seth and Evan not talking to each other, but with beer. And then the three have to confront the last goal in their odyssey: get laid.

Sex, cussing and everything aside from nudity that makes a film adult is rampant in Rogen and Goldberg’s superb script, but all of that is a chocolate wrapper for the sweet nougat of guy love underneath. The acting in the film will probably never win awards, but Arrested Development’s Michael Cera and Knocked Up’s Jonah Hill have a style that so far only Seth Rogen can match. The duo have a natural, organic rhythm that is almost a direct opposite of an Amy Sherman-Palladino project where everyone speaks at 90 miles an hour, throwing in as many pop culture references as possible. While that certainly has its appeal, it’s not how people, even A.S.P. herself, talks. Cera and Hill aren’t afraid to pause or leave in ““umms”” and ““uhs”“; their acting is a golden thread in the Apatow film family’s fictional realism.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, but the meme in DVD releases is to release one version first and then, as little as three to four months later, rollout a super dooper special edition to get fans to double-dip. I don’t know if this is an Apatow mandate or a Sony Pictures trend, but on each of the Apatow Productions releases so far, there is no conceivable room for a special edition later on. Standards like deleted scenes, gag reel, auditions, making of et cetera are all present, but there are too many to go into detail about here aside from a few highlights. A personal favorite is ““Everyone Hates Michael Cera,”” an obviously fictional but tense and amusing video diary about Cera and how everyone detests him on-set. It has shades of the highly recommended Clark and Michael, Cera’s internet sitcom with Superbad background artist / continuity interrupter Clark Duke. Another fictional extra is ““Press Junket Meltdown,”” a supposed interview with a Brit reporter that is too over-the-top to play as real, but it’s amusing. Musicians thankfully seem to be getting more and more appreciation as of late on DVDs. The spotlight here is on the legendary funk musicians that played on the soundtrack under the direction of the film’s composer. There are also table reads of two drafts of the script, the more interesting of which one from early this decade, with Seth Rogen playing Seth and Jason Segel from Freaks and Geeks playing Evan. It’s a great example of how a script evolves, as it was wholly unpolished and rough, but you’ll recognize some lines and moments. Finally, the ApPack continue their tradition of rolling out the best film commentaries in the business that rarely have anything to do with the film other than telling embarrassing stories about each other. This one was different though because about half way through Judd starts admonishing Jonah for cussing around his young daughter Maude, who accompanied her father to the recording studio that day. Hill fires back by calling Judd names and cussing more and then Judd walks out and never comes back. I still can’t decide whether or not it was even slightly real but it was the among the most tense few minutes I’ve ever experienced on film. Finally, as if to make up for the lack of female nudal bits in the film, the only briefly seen ““Vag-tastic Voyage”” is complete here with naked pornstars Jenna Haze and Aurora Snow in full DVD quality; it’s a spot-on send-up of sites like Bang Bus. Not that I’ve watched those. What?

When Superbad hit theaters, I read a superbly nasty review in one of the trade rags that was critical of Apatow because of the bromance he has cultured in his film family, even though it was Apatow-alum Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who wrote this pic; Apatow was producer here. Said carper disparaged Judd for homoerotic undertones and sophmoric humor throughout his films. What that mudder never understood is that what Apatow has cultivated in the ApPack a reality touchpoint through fictional tales that capture the essence of what being a man, and a brother-in-arms, is really about. Gay or straight we cuss, we drink, we watch porn, we get in fights, we talk about sex and we’re always trying to impress someone we rise in the morning for; it’s a support system. Bromance is real and it throbs like Seth’s phallic fixation.

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