Ill-Informed Gadfly

“Superbad” understands that for many of us, high school was not cornucopia of social and sexual opportunity. It’s a welcome corrective to the last major loss-of-virginity comedy, “American Pie,” which took place in a fantasyland. “Superbad” traffics in awkwardness, frustration and tedium, in misunderstandings and blown opportunities for connection with the opposite sex. It nails the draining sensation of getting what you think you want and still ending up unsatisfied. The story is threadbare, but it provides a framework for these messy emotions. Socially maladroit best buds Evan, played by Michael Cera, and Seth, played by Jonah Hill, are charged with getting booze for a party. Complications ensue. The motormouth Hill and the quietly incisive Cera have amazing chemistry. They freight the deep bond between Evan and Seth with unspoken baggage. The not-so-dynamic duo has a sidekick, Fogell, a puny dweeb who butchers hip-hop slang. Fogell spends the evening with a pair of irresponsible cops who get a kick out of the name on his fake ID: McLovin’. Unlike many, I thought the Fogell sequences were the movie’s weakest – the cops never resemble real people, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse doesn’t have the supple comic skills of Cera and Hill. I apologize if you’ve been told it’s the best comedy ever, but “Superbad” is uneven. It has riotously funny moments but too many draggy scenes that sap the momentum, and it leans too heavily on profane dialogue to get laughs. But it finds an accurate tone for a high school movie: wistful regret.

LISTEN: Superbad