Superbad (film)

Superbad


Release date: August 17, 2002


Director: Greg Mottola

Writers: Seth Rogen and Evan

Plot summary: Evan and his two friends are looking for a last hurrah as the school year comes to an end and they plan to leave for college. Seth (Jonas Hill) will go to a different school than Evan (Michael Cora) and Fogle/ McLuvin (Christopher Mintze-Plasse). Seth doesn’t know that Evan and Fogle will room together, but he is jealous already that they will be together and he will be off on his own.

In a Home Ec. Class, Seth is paired up with Jules, a girl he really likes, and she invites him. He tells her he is going to get a fake i.d. as Fogle just mentions he is going, and she asks him to buy the alcohol for the party. Meanwhile Bekkah, she girl of Evan’s dreams is also going and she asks for a Goldschlager type alcohol. All the boys go with Fogle to the store money in hand, and this is when things spiral out of control.

The liquor store had a robbery while Fogle is there, and he manages to get out with the police officers, then Evan and Seth are stuck there and when Seth gets hit by a car, he blackmails the driver into taking him to a party where he is almost beat up for dancing with the host’s girlfriend.

Officer Michaels and Officer Slater take Fogle on a joy ride and play with him a bit before he finally is reunited with his friends. They go to the party with beer in Tide bottles stolen from the previous party and try to get their girls.

Critical Analysis: Rogen and Goldberg wrote this in high school and it is easy to see they understand the anxieties felt by a teen. The movie has a lot of “toilet” humor and fringes on Animal House or American Pie humor but also deals with the fear of leaving one’s friends behind. They also convey how difficult it is to be on the peripheral of the “in” crowd. Jules and Bekkah are popular and so Seth, Fogle, and Evan are fortunate that the girls are kind, social politics are not always so easy. Seth demonstrates genuine fear and insecurities with Jules an we see a sensitive side to his otherwise harsh personality.

Annotation: In a last hurrah, Evan, Fogle, and Seth try to get alcohol to bring to a party to impress girls they like from school as they face the end of the school year and high school. They go to parties, get drunk, and Fogle spends a little time hanging with the PO-Lice.

Writers: Seth Rogen told Kevin Smith that he and Goldberg thought of this idea in high school as they were fans of Kevin Smith’s work. Rogen was born in 1982 on April 15th in Vancouver B.C, Canada. He was in several movies such as Funny People, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express which he also wrote for as well.

Genre: Comedy
Rating: R
Age Interest/ Grade Level: 16 and up with parental consent. There is material such as drinking, sex, drugs, etc.
Curriculum Ties: There are none

Discussion Questions:
1.) Why do you think Bekkah comes on so strong in the scene in the bedroom?
2.) What did you think when Evan refuses to have sex with evn if he really wants to be with her?
3.) Why do you think the Officer Michaels and Slater spend so much time on Fogle?

Challenge issues: sex, drugs, alcohol, and language

Defense: This is one of the YALSA outstanding film picks. I would urge parents to watch it first.
In addition, I would explain policies for selection for San Diego County Libraries:

http://dbpcosdcsgt.co.san-diego.ca.us/screens/Intranet/policy/sdcl-policy_O.41_material-selection.pdf
If after my working to convince the patron, they still were not satisfied and wanted to file a grievance, I would provide the needed paper work and then it would go to the “Challenged Materials” team for San Diego County and then onward until there is resolution: http://dbpcosdcsgt.co.san-diego.ca.us/screens/Intranet/policy/sdcl-policy_O.34_intellectual_freedom.pdf

Selection Reasons: While this film has a lot of mature content, and perhaps not so mature… I choose this film because it is smart, and does explore relationships. Evan and Seth are afraid and that is something normal when a teen leaves for college. It is also a film where the “cool” are kind and more people need to see that. I saw that it was also on the Outstanding Films for YA on the YALSA site and I thought it must possess some merit.Goldberg