Superbad

No, I didn't forget about the other Judd Apatow movie after reviewing Knocked Up. Actually, Superbad was only produced by the comedy whiz—Greg Mottola (The Daytrippers) directed, from a script cowritten by Evan Goldberg and Knocked Up lead Seth Rogen (begun when both were 13), but it's an Apatow joint all the same, as you can tell right away from the rapid-fire, smartly juvenile sense of humor throughout.

Superbad is about Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), two none-too-popular high-school kids who have been best friends since grade school. It's the end of their senior year, and they're determined to lose their virginity before heading off to separate colleges in the fall. Something resembling an opportunity appears when the pair's painfully nerdy friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) announces he's getting a fake ID. Seth promises his lab partner and crush, Jules (Emma Stone), that he'll provide the alcohol for her upcoming graduation party. In his grand scheme, Jules will be drunk and grateful; Evan's own classroom crush, Becca (Martha MacIsaac), will attend and be drunk; and everyone will get laid.

Needless to say, things don't work out exactly as planned. Fogell's fake ID turns out to be less than convincing—it makes him out to be 25 years old and named simply "McLovin" —leaving Seth and Evan despondent that anyone will believe it's real. Hilarity does indeed ensue, much of it involving two bumbling slacker cops (Rogen and Bill Hader) who befriend "McLovin" and take him under their wing for the evening.

Now, all that doesn't sound like it adds up to much more than an '80s teen comedy. But Superbad has surprising depth. If Knocked Up sometimes seemed to be trying a bit too hard to make its "serious" points about marriage and commitment, this movie is the opposite. It effortlessly manages to delve into some of the deepest and most vulnerable of teenage feelings: the awkwardness of our first expressions of desire; the largely unspoken "I love you, man" bond between close male friends.

The relationship between Seth and Evan is mined at a particularly remarkable level. Hill and Cera allow their characters' fear and sadness about their imminent separation to peek through their bravado on the subject—and then, in a few heartfelt (and, yes, drunken) scenes, to come pouring out. Cera is endearing throughout, but it's the more caustic Hill who gets—and aces—the movie's most powerful acting moment near the end ... at a mall, no less.

Now, I have a confession to make: I can fearlessly watch ears being sliced off in movies, but when sympathetic characters are placed in humiliating situations, that's absolutely excruciating to me. And I did find Superbad difficult to watch at times, precisely because it nails the cringe-worthy moments of being a teen so perfectly. (Full disclosure: Whitney did not have this problem. A guy thing? Revenge for Blood Diamond?)

So this isn't quite as much the light laugh-fest as some of Apatow's other films. Yet it's still very funny, thanks to Hill's unprintable rants, Cera's deadpan responses, and almost every moment of the McLovin-and-the-cops subplot. Mottola keeps the pace fast enough throughout that you never have to pause over required suspensions of disbelief (there are quite a few coincidences, but who cares?).

Even though I was pulled up short by the unexpected emotional punch of a movie that at first seemed like a Porky's update, that was precisely what made Superbad more real, and thus more satisfying, than Knocked Up to us. See them both if you have time—but I'd go with this one first.