Seth Rogen having anything to do with a movie typically guarantees it will, if not feature a litany of stoner jokes, at least be a lot of profane fun. And one of his earliest and still best films, 2007 teen comedy Superbad, has now found a place in Netflix’s US Top 10 chart after dropping at the start of the month.
The story follows Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill), a pair of codependent teenagers about to graduate high school and attend different colleges as they plan their attendance at a final blowout party. Much of their actions throughout the film are part of a perpetually thwarted quest to get hold of alcohol to impress girls they like, during which they endure a series of humiliations, and on the way figure out the state of their friendship as they’ve (kind of) matured.
Rogen co-wrote the movie with his creative partner Evan Goldberg, crafting the screenplay when they were still teenagers, and loosely basing the movie’s events on their own senior experiences and the central characters on themselves, not to mention the unforgettable McLovin, who was apparently a real high school friend of theirs. Although Rogen originally intended to play the part of Seth (the boys’ names, obviously, are not coincidences), by the time the movie began production, he was too old and physically large to convince as a high schooler. He instead appears alongside Bill Hader as one of a pair of incompetent and immature police officers who periodically crop up throughout the pic investigating a robbery at the liquor store where the boys initially attempt to buy booze.
Upon its release, Superbad was righty met with acclaim from critics and audiences. And although its events are intentionally histrionic, the kernels of realism and emotional sincerity are apparent amidst the preposterousness, making its profane YA awkwardness something to which many people can relate.