Superbad is a movie that has a great trick up its sleeve. In its opening thirty minutes the film appears to be an American Pie-style comedy about three high school boys who want to attend a party in order to get laid, yet by the end it has evolved into an examination of friendship and a moment of change in young people’s lives.
Evan and Seth (named after the film’s two writers) are social outcasts. Awkward and geeky, they never receive invitations to high school parties and lust after two girls from their school.
When Seth’s crush, Jules, invites him to a party and asks him to pick up liquor he leaps at the opportunity, seeing a chance to get her into bed and make her his girlfriend until college starts. Meanwhile Evan tells Becca that he will be at the party and promises to pick up a bottle of vodka for her on the way.
Unfortunately for Seth and Evan, their plan hinges upon another lad who is picking up a fake ID. Fogel is beyond awkward and is a rail-thin geek who the boys are vaguely embarrassed to be friends with. He is also a little dim, as is revealed when he produces his fake ID in one of the film’s funniest scenes.
What ought to be a simple task goes badly wrong when Fogel goes into the liquor store and events spiral quickly further and further out of control. At this point the narrative splits in two, separating Evan and Seth from Fogel, who have their own adventure.
Superbad’s strength is in its power of observation. I remember my own high school days and college days and instantly recognized each of the characters from my own circle of friends. Of the three I would like to think I was Evan but that is for others to judge.
Much of the humor comes out of the way the boys talk to each other. The writers capture perfectly the casual use of obscenity and the obsession with all things sexual that makes up the character of teenaged boys. The dialogue is incredibly blue and laced with teenaged misogyny.
I found it amusing for the most part although it does push the boundaries a little hard for my liking on occasion. It is quite possible that some may find the male characters’ attitudes toward women to be tasteless or offensive. For instance, a sequence involving menstruation is puerile and an indulgent low-point of the film.
Overlooking that moment however, I found this film funny and perversely charming. Its leads are fun with Michael Cera, who was recently in Juno, proving a particular delight as the shy and awkward Evan, whilst the script rarely lets up on laughs.
I began this review by saying that the film’s opening led me to expect American Pie. By its end it has developed into Withnail & I, showing us the end of an era and the breaking apart of a significant friendship.
I cannot unconditionally recommend Superbad – its style of dry, blue humor will certainly not appeal to everyone – but the surprise it pulls through this shift of theme was significant for me and left me pondering my own teenaged friendships that disintegrated as I grew older.