Has Judd Apatow concocted the perfect movie formula? Judging by his recent successes, the writer of The Forty-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up can make a summer blockbuster with a few regular ingredients: one sexually-frustrated protagonist, a “coming of age” story and a gratuitous amount of thongs, cleavage and Seth Rogen.
In Superbad, the formula remains intact. Protagonists Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are socially-awkward high school seniors who have never gone to a house party or drunk alcohol outside their own basements. With three weeks left in the school year, Seth manages to get them invited to a big blast and prematurely accepts the responsibility of buying the booze, trying to impress the hot host.
When Seth’s tag-along friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) fails to obtain a believable fake ID, the stage is set for ninety minutes of misadventures as the boys haphazardly try to obtain contraband, discovering that the excesses of alcohol and sex aren’t so much a way to live as a rite of passage into adulthood.
Surprisingly, the formula of this teenage movie has not grown old and Apatow continues to reign supreme as the film industry’s newest King Midas.
For Superbad, this recycled coming of age story stays fresh thanks to the young cast’s realistic portrayal of teenage drama. Unlike American Pie, Revenge of the Nerds and other teen movies that expose schoolboy fantasies, Superbad is a series of familiar teenage situations executed believably. Mintz-Plasse is at his peak when he tries to smooth talk the liquor store cashier with a fake ID, claiming he is a “25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor.”
Cera, best known for his work as George Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, hauntingly captures the simultaneous excitement, confusion and psychological anguish any romantic teenage boy feels the first time his crush mentions the word “blowjob.” Hill, though at times seemingly doing a bad Vince Vaughn impersonation, also provides huge laughs as the loud, porn-crazed man’s man.
What differentiates Superbad from Virgin and Knocked Up is the script, written by Seth Rogen, who along with Will Hader co-stars in the film as goofball cops who make arrests in bars for free beer. Rogen has certainly found his own comedic voice, and his scenes with Hader are the strongest of the film. All of the quick one-liners that gave Virgin its legacy are here—“No one has gotten a hand job in cargo shorts since ‘Nam”—giving Superbad its chance to remain in the hearts and mouths of college students for years to come. Structurally, however, the script’s sub-plot dampens the pace of the film, bogging the audience down with details about Seth’s jealousy when he discovers Evan is going to Dartmouth with Fogell, a minor storyline that does nothing to propel the action of the movie.
Apatow has produced another hit. Though this film’s plot lacks the consistency that made Knocked Up the best comedy of the summer, Superbad is the best teen movie to come out since The Breakfast Club. It’s funny, witty and merits multiple views.
