Friday

Superbad is ironically (or not) very, very good. This is probably the best comedy I've seen since Anchorman, and it might even be better than that. It definitely beats Knocked Up, no question about it. For its humour and human observation, the opening conversation is as good as Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta's dialogue in the car from Pulp Fiction. It's about three boys who want to have some sexual experience before they go off to college. You might think, if you're a woman, 'this film is for men, I'm not interested', but I can tell you that the loudest laughs came from the women in the audience. I was thinking 'why has no one made a film about geeky high school girls trying to get laid?' (maybe they did: Welcome to the Dollhouse?), but I think women will enjoy this movie too. This is mainly because of the sensitivity of the men, and the jokes are always on them. There is nothing really crude here, in the style of American Pie. What is great is the sincerity beneath the surface. Whilst in Anchorman the characters are one-dimensional and you never really empathise with him, here (and in Knocked Up) a lot of effort has been made to make them real. In between the comedy, they deal with real issues of friendship, growing up and separating. Great comedies, as we know, are able to cross this line into sincerity, but still be able to rescue the jokes. As the camera pulled back from the final scene, I prayed for the credits to roll because it was the perfect moment to finish the film. It's not often you get what you wish for. Go see this film.