'Superbad' is worth the ride

Directed by Greg Mottola

Rated R

(Three stars)

By Bruce Bulloch

The teen coming-of-age comedy is the kabuki theater of American cinema. As a genre it has been so codified through repetition that plotlines play out like the stuff of ritual. There are the social outcasts, the quest for sex, the party, alcohol, and mandatory acts of personal humiliation. We've seen it all before and know exactly where it's going.

What is amazing about "Superbad" is that it leads us down this well-worn path with the dizzying sensation that we have no idea of what's going to happen next. This is kabuki gone gonzo and, if you can stand the foul language, about as funny as anything seen on film this year.

Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are two high school seniors still trapped in the doughy transmutation of adolescence. Evan can't even face a girl he's interested in without bolting for an exit and Seth is a pudgy kid with a smart mouth who hasn't figured out how to use it against the bullies who harass him in the hall.

To make matters worse, their biological clocks are ticking loudly. They are in danger of graduating as virgins.

The promise of salvation comes in the form of Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a genetic specimen of such nerdy composition that, by comparison, Seth and Evan look like cast members from "The O.C."

But Fogell has scored a fake ID and Seth volunteers him to buy the alcohol for a party in hopes that it will garner some much-needed status with the girls.

Once the three find themselves nervously staking out a liquor store things start to go wrong and in such a rapid succession that you need to strap yourself in for the ride.

Writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have a sharp instinct for pacing their humor. Even the running joke about Fogell's fake Hawaiian driver's license - he decided to spice it up by giving himself a single name: McLovin - has enough spark to keep it fresh long into the film's running time.

Rogen and Goldberg send our heroes down a rabbit hole of misadventure, twisting every teen-comedy convention until they each seem a little more believable and, at the same time, a little more surreal. Fogell's every fear about his first liquor purchase comes true except that no one questions his fake ID - not even the police who toss him in the back of their cruiser.

"Superbad" is a film where every quirk fits together. Hill, Cera, and Mintz-Plasse aren't your typical collection of pretty Hollywood stars; they're a goofy looking crew and bring a level of adolescent authenticity to the half-baked decisions their characters make. After seeing Fogell carted off in a police car, Evan and Seth simply go looking for another source for booze, which, to their inevitable dismay, they find.

Michael Cera can embody discomfort as few actors can. Seth keeps dragging Evan into impossible situations and Cera is able to ramp up the comedy just by the look on his face. Seth and Evan infiltrate a house full of stoned adults hoping to make off with a few bottles of alcohol. Someone mistakes Evan for a singer and the room demands an impromptu concert.

While "Superbad" keeps pulling rug out from under Evan, Seth, and the newly christened McLovin that doesn't stop them from pursuing their fantasies with a dewy-eyed determination. Seth's attempt to escape the house full of drunk and angry adults is sidelined when he discovers a refrigerator full of beer in the basement. There is something heroic about their refusal to abandon a plan that went south a long time ago.

By the time our young heroes make it to the party they stumble in like veterans returning from the wars. "Superbad" has taken everyone through a grinder of hilarious situations and it has definitely been worth the ride.

Bruce Bulloch may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com