Superbad

Judd Apatow comedies are a lot like sex. With sex, there's quite a lot of disgusting things happening--sweat pouring out, inappropriate body parts being utilized, unspeakable bodily fluids spraying everywhere. In the end, everyone agrees it's worth it, but you still feel like you need a shower afterward.

Superbad is not an exception; if anything, it's even more crass than Apatow's previous offerings. (Apatow produced rather than directed this one, but his fingerprints are still all over it.) However, like Apatow's previous films, it's still pretty worthwhile.

Superbad is the story of two high school seniors: Seth (Jonah Hill, one of Seth Rogen's buds in Knocked Up) and Evan (Michael Cera, who played George Michael in Arrested Development). Seth and Evan are high school seniors with two weeks left until graduation, so it should come as no surprise that much of this movie is the Quest for the Holy Vagina. A co-pursuant in this quest is Seth's and Evan's marginal friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who becomes infinitely more useful once he obtains a fake ID. Seth mentions the fake ID to a popular classmate named Jules, who happens to be having a party that night. Jules enlists Seth and friends to obtain the booze for the party, and this quest--which Seth in particular believes will allow them to complete the Quest for the Holy Vagina--makes up a large portion of the movie.

The first question you should be asking is: How is this any different from American Pie? Thematically, it's not really that different, but where Superbad crushes American Pie is with characters. Both movies have characters that are a little out-of-this world, but Superbad's are more real, more three dimensional, fleshier. And not just the main characters, either: One of the hallmarks of Apatow's films is that almost every person who appears on the screen seems to be a complete person.

The movie also shares some of Apatow's problems, however, most prominently that of a schlubbish guy somehow getting together with an implausibly hot girl. This wasn't a problem in The 40 Year Old Virgin, as Steve Carrell and Catherine Keener seemed well-matched. It was a bit of a problem in Knocked Up, as Katherine Heigl is clearly too hot for Seth Rogen, but their situation and Rogen's easy charisma made the match seem plausible. In Superbad, however, Jules inexplicably finds herself interested in Seth, who is frequently depicted as an uncool member of his class and who's not much of a looker to begin with.

Superbad is also plagued by a bit of unApatowesque sloppiness. Certain events are more coincidental than really good screenwriting allows for. Certain plot elements are not given the resolution that their significant build-up warrants. It's a comedy, so you can usually get away with things like this if your audience is laughing.

And they are here, largely thanks to the charisma of the three stars. Jonah Hill gets a bronze medal: He's perfectly cast as a particularly crass, sex-obsessed, selfish loser, and his lines get a lot of shock laughs. His character, however, is almost too depraved to root for. Almost. Christopher Mintz-Plasse gets a silver medal as Fogell--self-rechristened as "McLovin." His skinny geek with the tongue of a pimp is mostly comic relief, but one can't help but cheering for Fogell and all of geekdom with every success he has in the film. The gold medal goes to Michael Cera, however. He doesn't quite live up to his stellar turn in Arrested Development, but he still rocks the house. Compared to his friends, Cera's Evan is fairly normal and well-adjusted, but still has to deal with every bit of awkwardness that a normal teen does. And no one squeezes more joy from awkwardness than Michael Cera. Also, unlike Hill, Cera's character is one we can root for--and the very fact that Cera likes Hill makes the audience like Hill a bit more.

Superbad lands at an 8 on the 22 scale. There's certainly more good than bad here, but it's not nearly as excellent as Virgin or Knocked Up. So perhaps Apatow's films are like sex in another way: There's nothing quite like your first.