Superbad - Movie Review

Last Thursday evening, at the AVCO theater, in Westwood village, I had the privilege to "relive my youth" in a way, and see the raunchy, crude, yet hilarious Superbad. Being that I missed seeing "Knocked Up" in wide release at theaters recently, and also, that I'm a huge fan of the talented, creative, witty producer, Judd Apatow, I took the opportunity to attend the show. Not to mention, the star of the film, Jonah Hill, has a younger sister, Beanie, who is attending Drama camp in NY, with my son, at the time of this writing!

The film is directed by Greg Mottola, who hosted the Q and A, following the film. It was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and produced by Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson, definitely a team of creative, sharp, genius comedic minds.

In the Q and A session, director Mottola, shared with the audience, that the film tries to bring the viewer into the mind of male, sex crazed, adolescents. (namely, Jonah Hill, of Knocked Up, Evan Almighty, and Accepted; and Michael Sera, of Arrested Development)... Sera, a naturally funny kid, who stole almost every scene, is like a Bob Newhart trapped in a 15 year old body; he plays the straight man balancing out Jonah Hill's character.

Explaining how he got pulled into this project, Mottola stated, "it is a treat to work on a movie about teenagers, crude yet realistic..." and since he worked previously with Judd Apatow, on Undeclared, he read the script and thought to himself, "I'm just that pathetic and adolescent to direct this kind of material!" He noted, that "the most important thing when directing comedy, is to cast really funny people... In Judd Apatow land, a comedy has to originate out of something real- a true to life character portrayal, and a basic vibe that a situation could really indeed happen..." He also mentioned that improvisation lent a lot of energy to the film as well. He's thought of this idea since he was 13, punched it up for a decade, hired a ton of funny writers and actors with brilliant ideas and sketches...