Today, I’ve decided to review one of my favorite movies for about a year now: Superbad.
For some quick facts, Superbad was released in 2007. It was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and is semi-autobiographical, as the main characters share their names and the story is loosely based on their experiences in high school. Another cool tidbit is that 13th and Granville, the address where character McLovin wants to be dropped off by the police (more on that later), is the location of Goldberg and Rogen’s favorite high school sushi place.
This coming-of-age buddy comedy movie stars some big names like Seth Rogen, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, and was the film debut of stars like Emma Stone and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. The movie was directed by Greg Mottola and produced by Judd Apatow.
This movie is very raunchy, very high school boy. When I first watched it, it took me a while to really enjoy it. However, it is a movie that I think gets better with each rewatch.
To make a long story short, and spoiler-free, Superbad is funny. It really is hilarious, and never fails to make me actually smile and laugh out loud when I’m watching it, alone or with people. The joke delivery is so well done and never feels out of place. It still reigns to me as one of the most quotable movies to this day. The McLovin scene to me is one of the most iconic; I have a shirt of it (with the quote ‘old enough to party’ on it) and I changed my school ID to reflect the McLovin ID.
*PLOT & SPOILERS AHEAD*
You’re led to believe that the goal of the characters throughout the movie is sex, but the one sex scene at the end is super awkward, which is the point. Sex may have been the characters goal, but it wasn’t the movies. It’s the story of three dudes who through the course of the movie learn how to gain confidence.
Seth and Evan deal with this almost toxic masculinity (Seth more than Evan, which is shown throughout the movie- Evan doesn’t agree with Seth calling women bitches, and refuses to hook up with the girl he likes, Becca, because they’re both drunk) that is used for humor at some points. This I think didn’t age the greatest, but it’s also a realistic depiction of their time and how teenage boys thought almost 20 years ago. Lots of laughs and no real understanding of character. So I suppose I can excuse it for the art.
The cops in this movie are hilarious. I think Seth Rogen and Bill Hader shine in this kind of role, and honestly are my favorite characters in the movie. They take McLovin on this night of nights, fully knowing that he’s underage: drinking at a bar, catching a perp, shooting guns, doing donuts in a parking lot, et cetera, all to show him that ‘cops can be cool too’. One of my favorite lines from the movie comes from Bill Hader (Officer Slater), who simply just references Yoda from “Attack of the Clones” rather than just saying Star Wars. It’s something that’s said so nonchalantly and most of his one-liners fall flat like that and that just makes them 10 times more hilarious.
Underlying throughout the whole movie is how Seth and Evan, despite being friends for life, are eventually going to leave each other when they get to college. While I’ve already dealt with this, having watched this after I graduated high school, as my time at college approaches an ending, it does hurt in the way that it’s supposed to. The movie does a great job at promoting this theme and this strong emotional message that is really hard to swallow, for anyone. It is inevitable that you will drift from your friends, due to life. It’s something that is just out of your control, and if you put it in your control, then you aren’t living.
There are too many good scenes in this movie. One of my favorites is the montage of Seth playing out in his head how he’s going to buy alcohol for a party, which results in: him pulling out an 80 dollar bill and the cashier knowing his name, or him helping an old woman and she leaves saying “Have fun fucking Jules!”, or a brawl with the liquor store security where he kills that old woman. Eventually he gives up.
Another notable hilarious moment is when Seth and Evan are at a party (not their party, but another random one before it) and a brawl breaks out because Seth was dancing with someone’s fiancée. While that was happening, Evan was trapped in a room of people doing coke who mistook him for “Jimmy’s brother” and made him sing for them. Eventually, Seth is being swung at, and Evan has 3 men on top of him saying “hold him, Jimmy’s brother!”. It’s almost unbelievable- which makes it that much funnier.
However, the ending scene of this movie is a little heartbreaking. After going on this whole bender full of fights, running from the cops, Seth and Evan end up having a sleepover and drunkenly get past their toxic masculinity and say they love each other (“I love you. I’m not even embarrassed to say it. I love you. I want to shout on the rooftops,”). They could never do this sober on a regular day- but they were always so afraid to lose each other and didn’t know how to say it. They both wanted to move on to bigger things in college, but didn’t want to do it alone. Evan even admits that he doesn’t necessarily want to live with Fogell (aka McLovin), but he’s too scared to live with strangers.
The next scene, the final scene, shows Seth and Evan running into Jules and Becca (their love interests) at the mall. They each go with their respective girl and the credits roll as we watch Jules and Seth walk into the crowded mall, eventually losing them. But the camera stays on the crowd, where Seth and Jules were, for the rest of the credits. We’re meant to assume that the boys will drift apart from each other as they go to separate colleges. They get the girls, which is what they wanted from the beginning, but they lose what they had at the start. The last look Seth gives Evan on the escalator, only to see that Evan isn’t looking back at him is so. Gut wrenching. It’s bittersweet, and it’s a change that neither of them can really control at this point. I think this movie should be a must-watch for anyone graduating (high school mainly, but college could apply too) to help them move on to a different place with different people and try to figure out what all the change that surrounds them really means.
All that heartfelt sappy stuff pushed aside, this movie is genuinely sidesplitting. I literally can’t stress enough how funny those cops are I might get my roommate to do a Halloween costume of them with me. 10/10, or using the classic Flick Focus star rating,
★ ★ ★ ★ ★/★ ★ ★ ★ ★, I will always recommend this movie.
(You can watch Superbad on Hulu or Disney+ with a premium subscription).
