The ecstatically amused audience I saw it with didn't have any problem loving the movie or anticipating these two losing it. But I was never sufficiently seduced. I didn't like Seth and couldn't rouse myself to root for him. Needless to say, it was a lonely two hours.
Set in a virtually unparented American everyburb, "Superbad" has a degree more sophistication than "Revenge of the Nerds" and "American Pie," and less than the underrated "House Party." It's just as ribald as all of them. The movie spends a couple of days and one long night with Seth and Evan in the months before they leave for college. Their plan never to be apart has been upended since only Evan got into Dartmouth, and the movie's emotional subtext very much involves Seth's heartbreak over the possible loss of his best friend.
"Superbad" emerges from the increasingly successful happy comedy family whose central figure is Judd Apatow. He wrote and directed "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," and produced this movie. The writers are Evan Goldberg and "Knocked Up" star Seth Rogen, childhood friends who've named the characters after themselves. Director Greg Mottola has overseen some excellent canceled TV series, including "Arrested Development" and Apatow's own "Undeclared."
"Superbad" has some of that Apatow feeling. The few smart observations could have come from an episode of one of his TV shows. But the movie is missing the gentle moral authority and most of the human warmth. (There is one affectionate moment between Seth and Evan in a sleeping bag that suggests a suburban "Y Tu Mama Tambien," and one disagreement between them evokes the wounded spats in Barry Levinson's "Diner.") "Superbad" also lacks a funny woman or at least some female perspective -- it would have been nice to hear what the girls see in these boys.
