Superbad – It’s Brilliant

Superbad – Unrated Extended Edition
Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Directed by Greg Mottola
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2007
118 minutes

Superbad will shock even the most foul mouthed viewer. The first five minutes of this comedy DVD are so filled with swearing that it is sometimes difficult to make out a coherent sentence among the curse words.

Fortunately for the viewer and the storyline the script settles down luickly and the legends are soon born. Superbad takes a littlegetting used to if you are not a teenage boy.

The language and head space of the main characters of the movie is at odds with anyone who is not a teenage boy in the last year of school trying desperately to fit in, not get beat up, get laid, get respect, find out who he is all in the midst of raging hormones and trying to self medicated with alcohol and marijuana.

In Superbad we get to see a big chunk of what life can be like in those angst ridden years when friendships are so strong and the need to be independent vies furiously with the need for companionship and acceptance.

Seth (Michael Cera) and Evan (Jonah Hill) are average teenage boys whose focus of attention swings wildly between girls they want to have sex with, graduation, college, liquor and avoiding physical confrontation with bullies.

The story of their completely cool / disastrous weekend starts simply enough with their friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) announcing that he is acquiring a fake I.D. which will allow him to buy booze.

At first he is dismissed (who would put a single name on a fake ID?) but when the luscious Jules (Emma Stone) approaches Seth to buy drinks for the party she is having (a party to which they were not invited until it was discovered that they could buy booze) the story takes off.

Superbad is essentially a quest movie in the vein of knights doing great deeds so as to return a hero and win the heart of the princess.

Of course in the world of 21st century teen angst it plays out a little differently and for a great amount of laughs.

There are essentially two story lines – Seth and Evan trying to get liquor to the party and the comedy of errors which ensues and Fogell being escorted around town by two permanently adolescent police officers who are hell bent on partying and proving that they can be cool.

The secret to the success of Superbad is in flawless timing and never going too far one way or another. There is slapstick, cringe humor and touching moments but none are played to excess. T

This is easily a movie which will be a touchstone for a generation of boys and young men who see themselves reflected accurately but not too seriously in Superbad.

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