All hail the inauguration of verbal pornography! Hear Hear! August presented us with Judd Apatow's latest midas-touched movie, Superbad. A movie filled with a plot as overused as ever, but still always as awkwardly and outrageously hilarious as expected from a movie within this genre. As foul-mouthed as this movie is, it is easy to place it in the top with the greats, as long as you can tolerate the stomach-wrenching dialog(just don't go see this with your mother).What's so good about a movie where every word out of the protagonist's mouth is one involving creative detailing of sexual and inappropriate acts that in all actuality never really happen but could easily be invented by the overly sexual imaginations of mid-pubescent teens on the verge of high school graduation, anyway? Well, there's something comical to be found in the creative exchange of dialog between the two main characters, Seth, who is played by the foul-mouthed Jonah Hill, and the more respectable yet slightly less comical of the two, Evan, who is played by Michael Cera. There is something daring by taking things farther than predecessors such as American Pie, that make this a movie filled with laughs.
Bottom-line, American Pie was an instant classic within this genre that pushed the limits at the time it was presented. A movie of this genre calls for pushing the limits and testing boundaries of what the audience will find acceptable from a "teen" comedy involving high school students. Why does it call for this? Because the real audience tends to be 17 and above and includes adults who have long-since denied the existing nature of the verbal content and going-ons between teens, which are ever-so liberal and ever-so sexual. Superbad is to the portrayal of 17 year old virgin teen boys as Saving Private Ryan was to the portrayal of World War II, as close as movie-going audiences have yet to see, and as stomach-wrenchingly honest as movie-going audiences would not like to see, although the truth can be a pleasant discomfort at times.
These days it costs a pretty penny to see a movie, whether at theatres, to rent, or to purchase on DVD, but if you can tolerate a movie that is verbal pornography and is most likely the funniest movie ever written, then you can afford to see this movie.
