Superbad

Superbad is one of those comedies that always comes up in “best of the 2000s” conversations, and honestly, it deserves the spot. The story is simple: two awkward high school friends (Michael Cera and Jonah Hill, both peak awkward) try to have one memorable night before graduation, basically chasing booze and girls. On paper, it’s a teen party movie. On-screen, it’s way funnier and way more honest about teenage anxiety than almost any of its imitators.

What sets Superbad apart is its razor-sharp script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who apparently wrote the thing when they were actually teenagers. You can feel that authenticity in the dialogue, with its messy tangents, weird obsessions, and total overreach. Nobody in this movie talks like a screenwriter’s idea of a “cool kid.” Instead, there’s a lot of shouting, swearing, and absolute panic about the smallest things. That’s part of the charm.

The pacing is manic but pretty perfect. There’s barely a wasted minute, and the night just gets more off-the-rails as it goes. The weird detour with the cops (Seth Rogen and Bill Hader, both fantastic) could’ve weighed down a lesser movie, but here it just cranks up the absurdity. What could’ve been a clichéd “police are the enemy” subplot instead becomes some of the funniest stuff in the film.

The chemistry between Cera and Hill makes it all work. You really buy them as friends, especially in the way they care way too much about what the other thinks. Emma Stone and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (as the iconic Fogell) round out a cast that’s weirdly endearing, and no one’s phoning it in. Even when the jokes get crass, the heart underneath is hard to deny.

That being said, the humor absolutely isn’t for everyone. There are a ton of crude jokes, and at times it leans too heavy on shock value. If you’re not into adolescent awkwardness or you get secondhand embarrassment easily, some scenes are straight-up painful. There’s also maybe one subplot too many, and by the last twenty minutes, you do start to feel a bit of comedy fatigue.

All things considered, Superbad is still one of the funniest, most quotable comedies of the last few decades. It captured the tail end of the analog era, right before everyone had a smartphone, and still feels weirdly fresh. Not every gag lands, but the honesty and chaos more than make up for a few groaners.