Bad good, and Bad BAD!

Rating: 8/10 (25 August 2007)

Superbad manages to be both enjoyable and touching, and not in the creepy-uncle sort of way, either. If you can stomach the 186 instances of the f-word - and I'm sure most of you can - you'll never stop laughing. It's hysterical. I'm not going to put it on the level of classics such as Airplane! or Young Frankenstein, but coming from a thirtysomething who's not the intended audience, it's badass in its funniosity. It's a movie in which high school seniors talk like high school seniors and act like high school seniors, not a movie like Porky's, in which guys with receding hairlines pretended they hadn't yet grown pubic hair.
First things first - I'm changing my name to McLovin, because it's THAT hardcore. When chicks hear my name, they may give me an askance look, but they're really thinking, "Hm, that is so hawt." I know this because Fogel (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) wound up scoring, sort of, on the basis of his new name. That's right, pushed-up glasses, dorky haircut, stammering, it all means diddly if you have one and only one name. Why else did Madonna get so much action back in the day? Or Jackee'? Or Cher. Or Fabio. Yes, I'll be the thirtysomething, Dilbert-like Fabio. Chicks dig that.
Fantasy aside, here's the basic plot. Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are longtime buds who are nearing the end of their high school existence. They expected to go to college together as well, but it turned out that Evan was hella smarter than Seth, so although the former got into Dartmouth, the latter could do no better than a state college. Moreover, it's the standard end-of-school party time! Seth wants desperately to hook up with Jules, who's hosting the party. To get into her good graces, he tells her that he and Evan will supply the shindig with booze. (Everyone's underage, in case that wasn't clear.) Meanwhile, Evan has the hots for Becca, whom he respects - Evan's one of those quiet, sensitive types, always tripping over himself not to be impolite while being awkward. The boys now have a quest - use Fogel's newfound fake ID - he's suddenly a 25-year-old Hawaiian named McLovin! - to buy a metric crapload of liquor for the party.
As with Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, everything goes wrong. Fogel's separated from Evan and Seth when the liquor store is robbed, and the other two wind up at a soirée where, among other things, Seth winds up with a nasty liquid on his pants. Plus there are two ribald, hell-raising cops who smoke, drink, shoot their guns in the air - on duty. Aw, yeah. "Can I shoot one?" asks Fogel. "I don't know," replies Officer Michaels, "can you?" On one level, this is pure raunch, with sex and cursing (and even some mild drug use). Lots of sex references that might squick you out if you're of a certain age and can't handle teens even thinking about fornication. (You probably haven't read this far, then, bailing when the "f-word" term was used earlier.) But even so, the profanity seems somehow natural, almost organic - this is how kids talk. Not all, surely, but some portion. It's not as if they're all being presented as child prodigies who harbor mean streaks, they're merely acting as typical teens might.
On another level, though, there is deep meaning in the relationship between Evan and Seth, two friends who have grown to be completely dependent on each other over the years, so much so that they're in denial about their future - Evan will be rooming with Fogel at Dartmouth, a fact he's kept from Seth. Seth is arrogant, loud, obnoxious, and not particularly bright or gallant, and Evan is his polar opposite in nearly everything. Neither one exudes machismo or toughness, although Seth puts up a good front. Their sweet, platonic relationship comes off as sincere to its very core. This is not a cheap dichotomy thrown together for laughs; you get the feeling Seth and Evan really care for each other and that each feels he'd be hopelessly lost without the other. It's a bittersweet feeling.
But that's all below the surface. Revel instead on the entertaining performances by the bombastic Hill and the reserved Cera - these guys act as if they've known each other all their lives, the chemistry's so good. Also no slouch is the inimitable Mintz-Plasse, who's a bit like DJ Qualls' character in Road Trip: geeky and yet appealing as all get out.