01. I haven’t seen the other films in Judd Apatow’s producing canon (except for Talladega Nights) but I’d wager that this one falls into line quite nicely with what you’d expect from his projects. I’m also going to go out on a limb and say that this is probably one of the smarter films he’s been involved with. You get the same genre of ridiculous and disgusting jokes as you might find in something like Talladega Nights but it’s a lot closer to Freaks and Geeks in cleverness, I think.
02. The term “teen sex comedy” is being thrown around a lot for this movie, which is understandable, I guess, in a really generic way, but it’s so much better than that. I hate to use a word like “nuanced” to describe characters in a movie like this, but they’re so much more than the hastily sketched stereotypes you see in other teen comedies (the jock, the geek, the hot chick). Those types of characters exist, obviously, but they’ve tweaked them enough that they’ve managed to inject a huge dose of realism into the movie. The other problem with labeling this as a teen sex comedy is that this label is incredibly misleading; sex is a huge motivator in just about everything the main characters do, but the movie is so not about that. The bond between Seth and Evan really is the core of the film and it’s all heartbreaking and sad when they’re completely hammered and telling each other that they love one another. One does not normally clutch one’s chest and say “AWWWW!” while watching a film of this sort.
03. All of which makes me think that Super Bad is to teen sex comedies what 10 Things I Hate About You is to the high school rom-com genre: you’ve got the same basic elements as every other stupid teen movie out there, but the writing is so strong and the performances so good that it gives you enough insight into the characters so that they don’t become throwaway cardboard cutouts.
04. Awesome soundtrack. These things are important.
05. Michael Cera, the pride and joy of Brampton, Ontario, is officially the cutest thing ever omg. I adored him on Arrested Development and I adore him about ten thousand times more after this movie. He plays that sort of nice guy character really well to begin with, what with all his embarrassed stammering and attempts to cover up his true feelings about things, but man do they really capitalize on that in this movie. Evan is like George Michael Bluth, only a little rougher around the edges and a lot more prone to speaking expletives.
06. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I like movies where drunk people actually act the way drunk people do rather than acting “movie” drunk. When Becca was trying to get it on with Evan, she was so completely cringeworthy with her self-perceived sexy moves that were anything but. And oh, Evan, always the gentleman and telling her the only thing he remembers about that night is how she didn’t throw up on him. Bless him.
07. The guy who played Sean “Cop Magnet” Costigan in The Departed was Mark, the guy who threw the party Evan and Seth went to that ended up getting broken up by the cops. Oh the irony.
08. WTF Someone get Mark’s girlfriend a tampon, holy crap. How does that even happen? Wow.
09. The scene where Evan sang “These Eyes” for the guys doing coke was hysterical. I can’t imagine they would have used that song if Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg weren’t both Canadian. I know The Guess Who enjoyed success outside of this country, but no one who wasn’t Canadian would ever use this song for comedic effect in a movie. So, so awesome.
10. I love how Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg didn’t even bother to name the film versions of themselves something else entirely.