Before we go any further, let’s get a few things out of the way first. Yes, this movie his vulgar, crass, and filled with enough sexual references to fill any three porn films. It has enough f-bombs to make Navy SEALS a little green. Its main characters have a bit of a chauvinistic look about women. And in no certain terms can I say that everybody should go see this film. And yet, what I’ve just mentioned is apart of what is one of the year’s best films.
The film is called SuperBad and is produced by the comedic master Judd Apatow, written by his protégés Seth Rogen (yes, that guy from Knocked Up) and Evan Goldberg. The movie follows a 24-hour period in the lives of two 18-year-old boys named Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Arrested Development’s Michael Cera). They are your usual freak and geek, respectively. Seth’s lack of self-restraint is only matched by Evan’s lack of self-confidence. They have been friends since grade school and are going to be split up when Evan leaves for Dartmouth after high school is over, leaving Seth behind. On this day, Seth finds himself getting invited to a party by the beautiful Jules (Emma Stone), who needs him to pick up alcohol for the event. Evan’s own long-time crush Becca (Martha MacIsaac) will also be in attendance. Seth’s idea is to get their respected ladies the required booze to make sex possible. Evan’s not so much a fan of this plan, but decides to go along. Just one tiny problem, now they have the get the alcohol.
Enter Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), their third wheel who makes Urkell passable as the next Bachelor. As it turns out, he’s getting a world-class fake I.D. Tiny hiccup; Fogell’s license goes under the splendidly nerdy moniker McLovin, something that he’s very proud about. But securing booze turns out to be much more difficult than expected when a robber cold-***** him and the police come on the scene. Seth and Evan flee the scene as Fogell finds himself in the presence of two of the most incompetent police officers in the movies…ever (played by Rogen and SNL’s Bill Hader). Needless to say they buy into McLovin and decide to show him a good time busting drunks, shooting off guns, and eventually running over a pedestrian (although that was an accident). As for Seth and Evan, they find themselves getting into deeper messes as the night continues (at it’s lowest point, Seth has some peculiar blood on his pants and Evan finds himself having to sing to some very coked-out dudes) They eventually get to the party, but not before some deeper psychological issues come out, leaving both boys feeling hurt by the other. At this point, the film takes some wonderfully different choices than I would have expected (and date rape is not one of them). Both Seth and Evan get a realization about women without it being preachy or making women out to be saintly (something that Hollywood and pop culture in general has a way of doing). Fogell finds that he IS McLovin (and I say Amen, brother!). And when we get to the final shot of the film, which in my opinion is the most important, we feel that the boys have taken a larger step into becoming more responsible men, though still FAR, FAR from maturity.
SuperBad is the teen comedy that all teen comedies wished they were. Even the likes of John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club gets lost in it’s own nostalgia. But SuperBad doesn’t fondly look back at high school. It sees high school as it really is, a trauma that no one ever wants to go back to. Its characters are 18-year-olds who see the world from their disadvantage, misinterpreting the pop culture world they live in (Seth’s reason for needing booze to seduce is really an extent to his lack of confidence in his physical attractiveness). The girls in the film are as eclectic as any in an Apatow production. There are some that fall into stereotypes, others that defy the norm. And then there’s McLovin, the wild card among them all.
Casting in SuperBad is one of the best ensembles that I have seen this year. For the odd-couple relationship, Jonah Hill and Michael Cera are perfect as Seth and Evan. Hill has an easy charm about him, no matter what comes out of his mouth. It’s a quality I’ve last seen in the late great John Belushi. Michael Cera has always been great about playing the straight man in manic comedy as he had shown in Arrested Development. He’s almost deadly in underplaying Evan and allowing him to be introverted and doggedly earnest, even when he really wants to be SuperBad. To be honest, I would love to see them team up for another project, be it a whole new feature and not a sequel. But the showstopper is newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse as McLovin. He is, well, he IS McLovin! The casting of Seth Rogen and Bill Hader as the police officers is a choice that I think was best. These two men are great improv comedians and really work double-time assisting the new guy to make him look good. Maybe Mr. Plasse might not become a true thespian of the ages, but he was the right man for the job on this gig. But let’s give some credit to the ladies in this film. Emma Stone and Martha MacIsaac both give sympathetic performances that allow for some great comedy, but not at the characters expense. It would have been easy to exploit them for sex appeal, but the filmmakers allow them their dignity, even when one of them does some really embarrassing things.
It is said that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg started writing this film when they were in high school. I doubt that they ever had an adventure like the ones their characters went on, but I can see inner-truths being said about boys at an age when friendships become paramount and the lure of the opposite sex is too much to bear. Add in Greg Mottola’s direction, which understands that you don’t have to clutter a scene to make it funny. I also am proud how he doesn’t allow pop culture to be laced throughout the film (though I’m sure that the movie itself might influence pop culture for a while). He plays 70s groove songs and 80s rock (with a pinch of 90s hip-hop) to a movie that under less direction would have been filled with the newest hip music.
All in all, I’m so proud of this film, I’m beaming. I remembered at the time I was in high school when the movies presented the experience to be about being the coolest kid in class, getting onto MTV and being in the In-Crowd. Judd Apatow with his brain trust had changed this formula when they made Freaks and Geeks, and now SuperBad is it’s more foul-mouthed cousin. But I cannot recommend it to everybody, only those who can see past the potty-mouths and see the inner-truths presented here. Are there and should there be cops like these? Hell, no! But like the cops, the film is a perfect blend of reality and fantasy done the way only a movie can do it. But don’t try to count the curses; you’ll lose it five minutes in.
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