DVD REVIEW: "Superbad"

Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse in "Superbad"

If Martin Scorsese had made "After Hours" as a teenage comedy, it might have come out something like "Superbad."

But, then, perhaps not. Scorsese's movie is a comedy of a nightmarish short. You laugh, but you don't feel that comfortable about it. And like Scorcese's "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver," "After Hours" examined the horrors found on the underside of New York City. I seriously doubt that what happens to Paul Hackett in that movie ever happened (at least in one night) to any human being, at least anyone who lived to tell about it.

The adventures of Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (the remarkable Michael Cera) in "Superbad" are not only far more realistic, I'm betting they did actually happen--or at least approximately--and that's not just because the co-writers of the film are also named Seth (Rogen) and Evan (Goldberg), but because ... well, let's just say I could feel their pain.

My dad supervised the construction of chemical plants. When he was finished with one of these monsters, he packed up the family (my mother, my younger brother and I) and moved to the next assignment. We never remained in one locale for more than 18 months and the moves always took place during the school year. As a result, we would enroll in a new school where the cliques had already knotted, the friendships had already sealed, the boy-girl dating partners had already formed. I have an inkling of what it's like being on the outside looking in and if you've been there as well, especially in high school, you know it can be both painful and embarrassing.

This is the territory occupied by Seth, Evan and the third member of their team, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who was a high school student when he tested for this part), who's so far on the popularity perimeter that even Seth and Evan indicate they'd rather not have anything to do with him. Evan has a crush on a girl named Becca (Martha MacIsaac), but he's so clueless that he has absolutely no idea that she has a crush on him as well. (There is a wonderful scene in the halls of the high school when Evan makes up this incredible story about his weekend adventures and Becca coyishly tells him "I'd love to do that sometime." He replies: "Yeah, I mean, who wouldn't?") Seth thinks the only way he'll ever have sex with a woman--especially a looker like Jules (Emma Stone)--is if he can get her drunk enough that he becomes one of those mistakes a woman regrets when she wakes up the next morning. Their adventures begin when Jules says she's having a party at her house while her parents are away and Seth volunteers he can secure liquor for the underaged party-goers. Seth, Evan and Fogell, the latter armed with a fake ID that identifies him as a 25-year-old from Hawaii with the single name of McLovin, set off to buy the booze and their evening begins going downhill quite rapidly.

If that was all there was to this film, "Superbad" would probably rank on my list of favorites somewhere around the neighborhood of, say, one of the "Porky's" films. But what sets "Superbad" apart is that these three kids really do have good hearts and Seth and Evan at least really do care about each other. The panic these two are facing is not the panic of two guys about to graduate from high school without losing their virginity, but of two guys who have been inseparable since the 8th grade and now must face the fact that one of them is going across the country to attend Dartmouth while the other goes to a local state college. "Superbad" is not about male hormones, but about friendship and the frightening possiblity of that friendship crumbling.

It does, however, have a downside, and it comes in the form of two policemen played by Bill Hader and Rogen himself, who was such a delight in "Knocked Up" earlier this year. ("Superbad" is another film from Judd Apatow, who, in addition to "Knocked Up," gave us "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.") These two characters really overstay their welcome. And I'm not sure I would feel any sense of security living in a community where these two clowns made it through the local police academy.

Unlike the comedies of the Farrelly Brothers or Ben Stiller, "Superbad," like Apatow's other films, doesn't depend on vulgarities or sadism. Instead, it depends on dreams, aspirations (I'm betting that Fogell succeeds Bill Gates as head of Microsoft) and the misplaced confidence of a couple of foul-mouthed teens who genuinely care for one another.

Grade: B+