Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Jun 14, 2016 14:08:22 GMT -5
Superbad
Dir. Greg Mottola
Premiered August 17, 2007
The first ads I saw for Superbad were banner ads on MySpace. The film was advertised as “from the creators of Knocked Up,” provoking my immediate dismissal. Clearly this was going to be a cheap cash-in on Knocked Up’s success, starring two unknowns, one of whom I only knew from an obscure TV show nobody else had seen (yet). In reality, Superbad turned out to be a far superior film.
I don’t remember what turned me around on the idea, but certainly the TV ads helped, especially the ones with McLovin. Without giving away the best jokes, the campaign presented us with a teen movie with a very different, very teenage sense of humor. And then the actual movie took it to the next level. For that reason, Superbad is one of my top five favorite films, and probably always will be.
Most movies about teenagers suck because they’re not really about teenagers. They either exploit hoary old tropes to show nudity and wildness, or they simply put adult stories and characters in high school drag (remember that weird trend of teen adaptations of classic literature?). Superbad does neither. It is a raunchy comedy about teenage stupidity that’s also heartfelt, earnest, and empathetic.
Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are two best friends about to graduate high school and start college. Evan has been accepted to Dartmouth, which Seth couldn’t even dream of, and the fear of losing their friendship has kept them from dealing with the inevitable consequences of their separation. Instead, the two try to win the affections of their mutual crushes (Emma Stone and Martha McIsaac) by acquiring alcohol for their end-of-year party, with the help of dorky hanger-on Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who has recently acquired a fake ID that would be convincing except that the name on the card simply reads “McLovin.”
Dir. Greg Mottola
Premiered August 17, 2007
The first ads I saw for Superbad were banner ads on MySpace. The film was advertised as “from the creators of Knocked Up,” provoking my immediate dismissal. Clearly this was going to be a cheap cash-in on Knocked Up’s success, starring two unknowns, one of whom I only knew from an obscure TV show nobody else had seen (yet). In reality, Superbad turned out to be a far superior film.
I don’t remember what turned me around on the idea, but certainly the TV ads helped, especially the ones with McLovin. Without giving away the best jokes, the campaign presented us with a teen movie with a very different, very teenage sense of humor. And then the actual movie took it to the next level. For that reason, Superbad is one of my top five favorite films, and probably always will be.
Most movies about teenagers suck because they’re not really about teenagers. They either exploit hoary old tropes to show nudity and wildness, or they simply put adult stories and characters in high school drag (remember that weird trend of teen adaptations of classic literature?). Superbad does neither. It is a raunchy comedy about teenage stupidity that’s also heartfelt, earnest, and empathetic.
Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are two best friends about to graduate high school and start college. Evan has been accepted to Dartmouth, which Seth couldn’t even dream of, and the fear of losing their friendship has kept them from dealing with the inevitable consequences of their separation. Instead, the two try to win the affections of their mutual crushes (Emma Stone and Martha McIsaac) by acquiring alcohol for their end-of-year party, with the help of dorky hanger-on Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who has recently acquired a fake ID that would be convincing except that the name on the card simply reads “McLovin.”
From this starting point, Superbad is tight and controlled; director Greg Mottola imbues the film with a clearly-defined aesthetic that most comedies lack. Over the course of a single day, a random encounter with two grossly irresponsible police officers (Bill Hader and Seth Rogen) sets the guys off on a desperate After Hours-esque adventure, forcing them to reconcile their friendship and their future.
I don’t want to give Superbad credit for what it doesn’t do, but that certainly contributed to its success, and I’ve yet to see a teen movie that has followed in its footsteps in such a way.
First, Superbad is not a romance. Although the film has love interests (and Emma Stone and Jonah Hill really do have chemistry here), the main conflict is over a platonic friendship between two young men. The fact that so many have read gay subtext into this film says as much about the frequent homoeroticism of adolescence (and the movie definitely has fun with that) as it does about the fact that close male friendships don’t get a lot of love in Hollywood. And they should, because it’s a huge, huge part of growing up that never seems to get its due.
Second, the teenagers act like teenagers. They don’t look 25 or have perfect skin or hair, or wear the latest fashions from Paris. They do not exist in the preordained, personality-based Apartheid state that high school is typically depicted as. They talk like teenagers. They swear incessantly like teenagers, but they’re also very clever like teenagers can sometimes be. And the whole film is permeated by a very teenage anxiety: the idea that everybody seems to know what’s going on except you.
And that’s what really makes Superbad hold up. It’s written in good faith, really trying to tell a teenage story. Screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg claim to have started the script when they were only 13 years old; obviously it went through many drafts as their perspectives and writing skills improved, but something very important managed to survive that process. They didn’t go into it hoping to imitate or capitalize on anything that came before, but simply make something new: a comedy of youth as youth sees it.
Additional Notes
I wish Seth Rogen were more appreciated as a screenwriter and as a performer overall. The guy lucked into Freaks and Geeks because they were looking for actual teenagers, and two years later he was a staff-writer for Undeclared at 18. He’s gotten into heavier stuff lately and has proven himself to be much more than the lightweight stoner people thought he was. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned to directing later in life and did very well with it.
Also In Theaters
Besides Superbad, The Invasion, Death at a Funeral, and The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, the weekend of August 17 saw the release of one other film. The Last Legion was a semi-fantastical take on the fall of Rome that was critically trashed and flopped hard.
Next Time: Balls of Fury
I don’t want to give Superbad credit for what it doesn’t do, but that certainly contributed to its success, and I’ve yet to see a teen movie that has followed in its footsteps in such a way.
First, Superbad is not a romance. Although the film has love interests (and Emma Stone and Jonah Hill really do have chemistry here), the main conflict is over a platonic friendship between two young men. The fact that so many have read gay subtext into this film says as much about the frequent homoeroticism of adolescence (and the movie definitely has fun with that) as it does about the fact that close male friendships don’t get a lot of love in Hollywood. And they should, because it’s a huge, huge part of growing up that never seems to get its due.
Second, the teenagers act like teenagers. They don’t look 25 or have perfect skin or hair, or wear the latest fashions from Paris. They do not exist in the preordained, personality-based Apartheid state that high school is typically depicted as. They talk like teenagers. They swear incessantly like teenagers, but they’re also very clever like teenagers can sometimes be. And the whole film is permeated by a very teenage anxiety: the idea that everybody seems to know what’s going on except you.
And that’s what really makes Superbad hold up. It’s written in good faith, really trying to tell a teenage story. Screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg claim to have started the script when they were only 13 years old; obviously it went through many drafts as their perspectives and writing skills improved, but something very important managed to survive that process. They didn’t go into it hoping to imitate or capitalize on anything that came before, but simply make something new: a comedy of youth as youth sees it.
Additional Notes
I wish Seth Rogen were more appreciated as a screenwriter and as a performer overall. The guy lucked into Freaks and Geeks because they were looking for actual teenagers, and two years later he was a staff-writer for Undeclared at 18. He’s gotten into heavier stuff lately and has proven himself to be much more than the lightweight stoner people thought he was. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned to directing later in life and did very well with it.
Also In Theaters
Besides Superbad, The Invasion, Death at a Funeral, and The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, the weekend of August 17 saw the release of one other film. The Last Legion was a semi-fantastical take on the fall of Rome that was critically trashed and flopped hard.
Next Time: Balls of Fury
