I THINK MY BRAIN IS FULL

I watch a lot of films. Life is short and I intend to waste mine with idle loafing in front of screens that make me mentally infertile. What could be better? In fact, that’s where I’ve been for the last few days. Don’t worry! Bud’s not dead!

I’ll tell you about Superbad. It’s a very funny film. Painfully funny, in places. Of course, the film is standard fare teen comedy stuff, but the cast are so incredibly natural (…like air…) and believable that you’re swept along very pleasantly, while hoping you don’t soil yourself at the just plain hilarious dialogue. The film was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. The plot is about as obvious as can be - there’s a party and alcohol needs to be bought, in order to win over young attractive women. It’s an experience pretty much anyone over the age of 15 can relate to. Considering the two lead characters are called Seth and Evan, I’m going to assume that this is a semi-autobiographical tale.

The leads are dorks. Seth is a fat, belligerent, porn-obsessed Jewish kid. Evan is a lanky, geeky kid with a crush on a popular girl. The two are as inseperable as you might expect two losers in high school to be. That’s about all I can say without ruining the thing for you. To be fair, I’m pretty sure you can work out where the film will go and what will happen along the way, but the predictability doesn’t detract from the movie at all. In fact, spotting where things are going and supping at the deliciously funny dialogue as you go along is part of the charm of the film. You’ve probably been there yourself at some point. To be able to take a simple, recognisable situation and make it funny, without making it too unbelievable is the real key to making great comedy. People laugh at what they recognise, particularly if it makes them feel a little uncomfortable.

What really tops off the film is the performances of Hill and Cera. They both shine. In particular, Hill. He’s real. In fact, he’s almost me, when I was a fat, porn obsessed kid at secondary school. Except he has the balls to say all those things that I would never have gotten away with. His delivery is spot-on throughout and is quite obviously going to be a huge star one day, and not just because of his corpulence. He has perfect comedy timing and a funny face. That goes a long way. Especially if you have a fat little body to go with it. I’m not going to say he’s the modern day equivalent of, say, John Belushi, but… well… he just might be. Having risen up through the Saturday Night Live stable, the comparisons are all there. He’s so much funnier and more talented than the Chris Farley-type fatties that have sprung up. He’s actually a good actor, delivering not only the funny-funny, but also nailing a serious edge. I like the man. A lot.

Though the film does have a particularly ridiculous strand involving two cops and McLovin, the ultimate movie geek, this also feels right as you’re again carried along by the witty interplay of Rogen and Goldberg, who star as the two cops that you probably wouldn’t mind be arrested by. Everything in Superbad feels good. And that’s how it’s supposed to feel. The buzz around the film has thrown up comparisons to American Pie, which I’m not a huge fan of. Whilst Superbad does have its share of fairly standard teen comedy motifs, it doesn’t simply rely on dick and fart jokes, or the casual display of nubile young flesh. Its genius comes from performance, script and direction.

Seth Rogen is one of the more interesting young stars coming up at the moment, being both a talented actor and gifted writer. He obviously writes what he knows and, probably, what he’s experienced. As far as I can tell, his on-screen persona is his off-screen reality. He’s a funny guy. Not only has he written one of the sparkiest scripts of the last ten years in Superbad, he’s also written for The Ali G Show, which you may love or hate as well as the almost ubiquitous Saturday Night Live.

What I’m basically saying is that this is a very good film. It has redefined what a teen comedy should be like. Look, just fucking watch the thing, alright?