Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
I enjoyed Pineapple Express enough to stop putting off Superbad, the previous effort from the writing team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Needless to say, teen sex comedies are not my favourite genre. I thought it would be another American Pie: high-schoolers trying to get laid before graduation.
Superbad is not American Pie.
The synopses sound similar, but Superbad has a nostalgic innocence about it. Seth (Jonah Hill), Michael Cera (Michael Cera) and Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) talk brash "I'm gettin' laid" talk and spend most of the movie trying to purchase alcohol for Jules' (Emma Stone) party. Fogell is intercepted by two cops who see in his nerdy manner and obviously fake ID (name: "McLovin", one word) the opportunity to be cooler than they ever were at his age.
This provides most of the laughs, but the emotional core is the "bromance" between Seth and Evan: best friends, to be separated the following year when they head to different universities.
What I like most is the pitch-perfect portrayal of teen insecurity. The boys talk big, but it's just talk. Even the girls, who appear only in short snatches of conversation, are surprisingly well-defined -- Becca (Martha MacIsaac), who, like Evan and Seth, thinks she needs alcohol to get what she wants, and whose friends hint at the world offscreen; Jules, who is not what she appears.
Well worth seeing.