Superbad (2007)

Premise: With two weeks left of high school and the prospect of heading off to different colleges looming over them, Seth (Jonah Hill) convinces Evan (Michael Cera) that they only way they are going to get with their respective crushes, Jules (Emma Stone) and Becca (Martha MacIssac), is to use Fogell's (Christopher Mintz-Plassse) fake ID to buy the alcohol for Jules' party.

In true into-the-night teen sex comedy style (ah, the films of my youth!), procuring said alcohol and arriving at said party are activities fraught with hilarious difficulty.

I'm a little concerned that I am going to start gushing about this movie any second now, so maybe I should say a few things to temper myself. Occasionally, Hill is more yell-y than funny. Also, I doubt this movie would work if you were in the wrong mood. The best comedies can generally turn any mood into a happy one (I was certainly in need of one when I saw this pic), but I can see how someone might be in a nasty mood and turn against Seth and Evan.

Okay, saying I could see "how" was a little generous. I can see it happening, but I'm not entirely sure I am capable of understanding why someone wouldn't start giggling during the funktastic 70s-style opening credits and keep on giggling right through to the end. I know I did. In fact, there were moments when it was really obvious that I found the movie far more funny than pretty much everyone else in the theatre, and those moments were slightly uncomfortable but mostly sad. To be honest, it kind of reminded me of the roommates I once had that thought it was strange to laugh out loud if no one else was laughing (e.g. if you were reading a book by yourself in your room).

If you're going to watch this movie (and you should), you've got to go ahead and get in a place beforehand where you've accepted what movie you are going to see. You've got to remember that these are the guys who made The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. As funny and sweet as those movies were (and they were, let's be honest), they weren't exactly what one might call "highbrow." Then you have to remember that they've moved the age group back from 40 to 20-ish to high school. Have you got all that in mind? Good. Now go see the movie. Stop sitting there and go out. We'll talk when you get back.

Are you back? No, really, go.

And we're back. Michael Cera has the best delivery and comic timing of any person alive. I challenge you to find anyone else capable of selling absolutely every joke he's handed, especially when it involves singing the Guess Who's "These Eyes." Cera's Evan is as sweet as he is awkward, and it makes him a perfect match for Hill's outrageous Seth.

While Seth has a tendency to rage and push every situation to its illogical, extreme conclusion, Hill bases Seth's actions in his very real need to find a way to cement his friendship with Evan before he loses him. It's sad, and it leads to a lot of messed up stuff, but it's also real and hilarious for that very reason.

All of which adds up to . . . Seth Rogen rocks much harder than the rest of us. He pretty much has to, what with he and co-writer Evan Goldberg being two of the funniest people around today. He and Bill Hader, as the police officers that take Fogell on his very own into-the-night adventure, provide a fine balance to Seth and Evan's increasingly bizarre antics. After all, they have just as important a point to prove.

And director Greg Mottola, a veteran of both Undeclared and Arrested Development, has his work cut out for him in trying to put an individual stamp on the Apatow Productions powerhouse. Between those two shows, combining awkward with sweet and getting hilarious as a result must be his bread-and-butter. He certainly made it look like it here.

Admit it -- you're glad you got up from your computer and went to see this one, aren't you? I'm going to see you on the street tomorrow in your McLovin'* tee. I'd suggest quoting it, but it was so profane that it had different lines just for the ads. Let's just nod and giggle in that insider way that makes people want to know what we are on about. If we do it just right, we can revive the teen comedy and bin those [Blank] Movies that have been masquerading in their place. A-

*The best part is the apostrophe.