Review #896: Superbad (2007)

Title: Superbad
Year: 2007
Director: Judd Apatow
Country: US
Language: English

On the heels of such early successes as The Larry Sanders Show and The Ben Stiller Show, American director Judd Apatow seemed poised to break big. His next teen-centric tv series (Freaks and Geeks & Undeclared) were critically successful, but met a premature demise. Apatow's creative visions would prove more successful in the realm of cinema, as features like 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up re-invented the rom-com for an entirely new generation. Some would argue he did the same for teen comedies with Superbad.

Two co-dependent high school seniors (Jonah Hill & Michael Cera) are forced to deal with separation anxiety after their plan to stage a booze-soaked party goes awry.

Through the ashes of Freaks and Geeks, Seth Rogan emerged as a talented writer with credits like 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. He also proved to have acting talents similar to his frequent costars like Michael Cera, who played a goofy youngster named George Michael in the hit tv series Arrested Development. The writing of Seth Rogan, directing of Judd Apatow and acting of Michael Cera (along with Jonah Hill & Christopher Plasse) amount to a vulgar and obscene coming of age comedy which has a surprising amount of heart. 

Superbad is ripe with absurd sexually explicit dialogue that can be quite hard to take at times. Rogan's writing narrowly avoids being completely sexist by having a well meaning message and some surprising character transformation. Deep down it is a story about friendship and the fear of separation. While that doesn't sound like it has the dramatic impact of Juno's unplanned pregnancy, it does manage to hit the right sentimental notes.

I enjoy that we have Michael Cera's goody two shoes character to counteract Jonah Hill's eerie female obsession. I also like the side story featuring McLovin' and the two SNL'esque cops. While perhaps it's not the most intelligent film, Superbad is pretty fun to watch and I did find myself laughing quite a bit.