Cool News
Do Four Fascinating Nerds Make This The Funniest Weekend Of The Year? Moriarty Believes In SUPERBAD And KING OF KONG!
Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here.
It’s this simple: I think SUPERBAD and KING OF KONG are two of the funniest films in recent memory, and I think it’s an exceptional weekend to go to the movies with both of them opening, depending on where you live. This is a good litmus test for you as a reader and me as a reviewer: I love these movies. Absolutely love them. And your enthusiasm after seeing them is probably a good indicator of how closely our tastes in comedy match.
SUPERBAD is a Great American Teen Comedy. It is not the first Great American Teen Comedy, and I’m not sure it’s the greatest of the Great American Teen Comedies, but it’s certainly guaranteed a place in the echelon. It is a silly script, but it’s deadly smart about being silly. The structure is deceptively simple. There are great character arcs being played out, but quietly, and the film’s first goal is always to make you laugh.
It’s an honest film, and I think that’s what makes it funnier. This is a movie that speaks to real experience. I remember high school nights in Florida when my friends and I would go out with one goal: find alcohol. None of us had older siblings (goddammit!) who could or would buy for us. Occasionally we would convince co-workers at our various jobs to buy for us. Or sometimes, we’d just go out determined that nothing was going to stop us, and we’d try three or four different tacts before something would work. And honestly, I don’t think it was the drinking of the booze that was really important... it was the getting of it. That was the adventure. That’s what accounted for some of the strangest Fridays or Saturdays of my adolescence.
My wife and I were invited to the premiere of the film on Monday night, and when I ran into Seth Rogen, it was at the exact moment that a bunch of his real-life high school friends found him as well.
“Oh my god!” Seth bellowed happily when he saw them. He greeted them and introduced them at the same time, and in doing so, he answered the question of how accurate the movie is to his own experience.
“This is the real Fogell. And this is the real guy who got the period blood on his leg!”
“You must be really proud,” I said to that second guy, and he positively beamed when he said he was. And I wasn’t being sarcastic. Everyone’s personal high school experience feels epic in memory... that’s because you were pumped full of lunatic-levels of teenage hormones and whatever else you could get your hands on, and to see that moment immortalized in a really good movie that was made by your best friends? Amazing.
I hope Greg Mottola gets the credit he deserves on this film. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are definitely the architects of the film, and as writer/producers, they brought a lot of creative weight to the table. But I think their sensibilities and Mottola’s make for an excellent mix. Mottola is great with these actors. He coaxes some of the best work yet out of Michael Cera and Jonah Hill, talented guys who sort of explode into movie stars as you watch this film unfold. It’s appropriate that Jonah Hill wears a Richard Pryor shirt at one point in the movie. I think Pryor’s best work was his angriest work, and I think Jonah’s at his most fascinating when he’s angry. He’s blisteringly sarcastic, and that’s certainly funny, but what makes it work is the way his humor really cuts. The anger is real. I think Jonah’s a pretty radical presence in this movie. He’s not doing the Bill Murray/Will Ferrell thing here. He’s a comedy persona we haven’t had for a while, and it’s even funnier when contrasted with the approachably dry but equally funny Michael Cera. Cera’s a stealth weapon, and he knows it. He knows that the more sincere he plays it... the more real and awkward he is... the more the audience feels for him. Neither one of these kids is written as a loser in this film, which is what marks it as something genuine and worthwhile. People can make the case for NAPOLEON DYNAMITE as sort of sneering at its subject, and I think it’s a turn-off sometimes when comedy is about roasting someone from the outside. It’s much more interesting to do what SUPERBAD does by treating these main characters with dignity from frame one. They are geeks. They are certainly not social superstars. But they’re not miserable. What they’re striving for isn’t basic acceptance like in REVENGE OF THE NERDS. They’re just geeks, not outcasts.
Evan (Cera) may be gentle, but he’s not weak, and he shows spine when it matters. He’s the moral compass of the film, especially in his scenes with Becca (Martha MacIsaac), which are uncommonly wise for the genre. Seth (Hill) is a motormouth, and that can work against him when he tells too much truth (I love his scene with the home ec teacher and his “no offense” as he blatantly offends her) or when he makes an unfortunately awkward joke, but it can also be an asset when he channels it in the right way. Done the studio way, this could have been something like TOMMY BOY or BLACK SHEEP, Farley/Spade vehicles that each contain some decent moments or that are inoffensive, but neither one of which I’d really call a good movie. But Evan and Seth are more complicated than a simple Laurel/Hardy riff. And they fill out the world with equally complicated comic supporting characters like Officer Michaels (Seth Rogen) or Officer Slater (Bill Hader), or like Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), the character destined to be most frequently misquoted and poorly imitated in offices across America. Mintz-Plasse is a real kid, not a polished actor, but he holds his own every second he shares the screen with Hader and Rogen. They sort of have their own movie with the movie, and I especially love the way their story resolves. This is the biggest role Hader’s had in a film so far, and he is excellent. He and Rogen have chemistry to spare, and I hope they’re teamed again soon.
You’ll hear a lot made of how the movies Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson produce right now are all about “improv,” but I think that’s sort of overstating things. I think they trust the people they cast, and they certainly give people room to play... but the final cut of SUPERBAD is pretty damn close to what I read before they shot the film last year. A lot of the dialogue is word-for-word intact. This isn’t some happy accident. This script by Goldberg and Rogen isn’t just funny; it’s specific, and it’s rich. This is really solid comedy writing first, before anybody improvs a damn thing. What impresses me is how each character has their own comic voice. This isn’t like the John Hughes movies or the Kevin Smith movies where you can hear the one author’s comic voice coming out of every character... and those films are fine, so don’t attack me if you’re a Hughes or a Smith fan... it’s just that instead, each character in this film has a totally different voice, and it just makes them seem like real people.
I respect the casting of Mintz-Plasse and MacIsaac and Emma Stone. They’re kids. They all look like high school kids. Michael Cera’s a kid. Mottola’s film is ultimately about the sophistication of the modern teen, and how much of that is projected onto them, and how much of it is appropriate, and how it really feels right now, trying to navigate the waters of teenage sex. These kids make good choices, even if it takes them a while to get there, and the movie rewards them in small, sweet ways. And considering how infatuated with the idea of sex the entire film is, there’s really only one person in the film who technically has sex, and it’s really only for one shot. One very, very, very, very funny shot... but just one shot.
SUPERBAD certainly wrings quite a bit of its comedy out of the uncomfortable, and I’m a big fan of this kind of comedy overall. Done right, it’s THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW or it’s the British OFFICE or EXTRAS, or it’s Larry David and CURB, and done right, it’s so much dark, wicked, ugly fun. I love comedy that takes it so far into the uncomfortable that I want to press pause as I’m watching, so I can catch my breath. I don’t pause it. I don’t let myself off the hook. That’s the kick, isn’t it? When you see something you really feel like you shouldn’t see? Something so revealing that it’s almost embarrassing. Can you imagine that in one weekend, you’ll get an example of this type of comedy that’s as good as SUPERBAD, but you will also get another film that’s perhaps even more uncomfortable and, maybe, even just a little bit funnier than SUPERBAD? Sounds crazy, but that’s this weekend.
Because THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS is an amazing documentary that delivers in ways that no fiction film has pulled off all year. Billy Mitchell. Steve Sanders. Walter Day. Steve Weibe. Brian Kuh. This cast of people all explode off the screen, some of the best-realized characters in any movie playing at the moment.
And before I continue... I am aware of the continuing story of this film that exists off-screen, in which various people in the film complain about what they feel is fair or unfair about the movie, and I look forward to seeing any follow-ups, and also CHASING GHOSTS, a documentary that features many of the same people. But for now, all I can judge is the evidence of the film, and THE KING OF KONG is a great movie. A crowd-pleaser. This is a film to see with a lot of people, with your rowdiest friends.
Basically, this is a fairly common type of documentary. Pick people who share an interest. Shoot them indulging in whatever their interest is. Make a film about the interest and about the community around it. Whatever drama suggests itself, that’s your film. It’s not really a reinvention of the wheel.
But Seth Gordon walked into a great story that was playing out, and he shot what he was allowed to shoot. Billy Mitchell complains about the way he’s portrayed in the film, but he was also pretty cautious about allowing Gordon access to his family or his personal life. And certainly, he was under no obligation to let Gordon shoot anything. But as a result of his limited participation, the movie ends up telling Steve Wiebe’s story, and if a movie has a hero, it has to have a villain. This is the story from the perspective of the middle school teacher who just wants to set a high score as a way of proving to himself that he can do what he sets out to do. There’s a cut in this film that is so canny on the part of the director, a juxtaposition of something Billy says and the introduction of Steve... everything you need to know about how Gordon sees this story he’s telling, you can learn from that one cut.
I know they’re working to remake this as a real-movie-with-movie-stars, but I think that’s a pretty big mistake. I don’t care who they cast... they’re not going to be able to play characters this rich, this strange, or this complete. All the film can do is expand on the one-upsmanship that still continues between Mitchell and Weibe, and frankly, I’d rather see another documentary about these guys than watch someone pretend to be them.
Frankly, part of what works for me about SUPERBAD is the aesthetic of it. Russ Alsobrook shot the film with the Panavision Genesis, something that may have helped encourage the loose energy of the scenes, and I admire the way the film makes its San Fernando Valley shitty style into something almost gritty. Huge kudos also have to go to Lyle Workman for his score. He picks some great funk to play on the soundtrack, but he also wrote a ton of great cues for the film that feel right... white man’s funk on an epic scale. It’s one of the best soundtrack CDs this summer as far as my car stereo is concerned.
KING OF KONG is also enjoyably low-tech in terms of look. Gordon’s a smart filmmaker, and he makes the most of what he has, visually speaking. His real gift is putting you into the middle of a scene so that you really are feeling what Steve Weibe is feeling at times. Anyone complaining about this one’s “accuracy” is missing the point; this is an exercise in empathy, and it’s astutely observed on Gordon’s part. It makes me hope that he does justice to Allan Loeb’s lovely script THE ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK, which Gordon’s supposed to direct next year. I think he’s got real skills as a director, and he sculpts a crystal-clear narrative out of what he shot on KING OF KONG. I’m excited to see Gordon take that step. I just hope he’s smart enough not to remake this story after he’s already told it so definitively.
SUPERBAD’s playing pretty much everywhere. THE KING OF KONG is a limited release for the moment. Hopefully it’ll do well and open wider, because both of these are movies that should be seen in the theater with as much of a crowd as possible.
I’ll be back later today with my review of another big title opening today, the Nicole Kidman/Daniel Craig vehicle, THE INVASION.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
-
+ Expand All
-
oops, wrong ta1kback
-
even after so many years, there's nothin' quite 1ike it.
-
Everything I've seen looks hysterical, but we're into overkill now.
-
Although I guess if the subject matter floats your boat it can't be hyped enough....
-
whats superbad?
-
of these 2 films, or their quality or anything...let me just say that that was a very well written review. For some reason I can't put my finger on, it seems to really stand out over the other things I've been reading on this site lately. Specific, interesting, just really well written.
-
true.
-
Its a comedy, hard pressed to find a comedy like this that won't please.
Just hope that all the jokes haven't been explained in detail to you, and even then thats only like 10% of the comedy. -
with the poster above, that was a fine piece of writing
-
Who gives these guys their assignments?!?!
-
What's with the King of Kong? Every publicity still I've seen has shown some guy in his garage playing Donkey Kong Jr. I thought this flick was going to be about somebody trying to get the high score on Donkey Kong???
-
COME ON, WHAT DID MR. BEAKS, JOHNNY WADD, LAUTURO, NEIL CUMPSTON, ROBOGEEK, MONKEE, JUNIOR MINTZ, ALLESANDRA DUPONT, ELSTON GUNN, ELAINE, DARIUS25 AND MEAN MR. MUSTARD THINK ABOUT ***SUPERBAD*** ?!?!?!?!?!
STOP KEEPING SECRETS, LET'S HAVE SOME COVERAGE!!! -
what's the big controversy over King of Kong? Are people saying it's not accurate, or fake or something? What's the story, Mori? Anyone?
-
He also reclaimed the high score on DK last month. What a whiny bitch.
-
One with the intestinal fortitude to tell them that not every scene they shoot needs to make the final cut. Superbad was 15 minutes from being absolutely classic. But those 15 minutes really dragged it down.
-
too many Superbad reviews? every person I know is excited for it, and looking forward to seeing it this weekend. and if for some reason you are irked by too MANY reviews on AICN, guess what? the mouse moves both ways! don't read them!fuck, the guys at AICN can never win with you whiny doofuses! review's too long! review's too short! too many reviews! where the ____ review? this scoop was on my sister's boyfriend's D&D partner's vetrinarian's dentist's blog like 2 hours ago! AIN'T IT OLD NEWS!SHUT UP!!! Superbad is EXACTLY the kind of movie that the majority of the people who founded this site, and the majority of people who READ this site, are excited about. I would be happy if they gave it a Transformers' (shudder) welcome, and put 30 geek reviews out there!mostly I just can't stand people whining about AICN. SUPERBAD OVERHYPED! SHUT. THE FUCK. UP.we should be doing everything we can to support movies like this, especially if we want to see more of them. and this incessant whining is not only annoying, it's so pathetically misguided! AICN is not meant to cater specifically to YOU. you are NOT sending back your own personal steak in a restaurant. millions of people come here, and if you, personally, have a problem with one thing, whining about it in the talkbacks does no good. unless you are speaking for a large segment of the readership (and guys, you gotta trust me, here....you're NOT), AICN owes you nothing. you're just a solo whiner. the rest of us get the big, sloppy sundae we want, every day we come here.
-
It just doesn't have that blockbuster mentality. It's not like the Heartbreak Kid preview where a woman runs into a telephone pole. Or Good Luck Chuck where a woman walks into a telephone pole. It's more honest and real than that. And I'm not sure people want that. Not in the summer, anyway. Honestly, there are moments in Superbad that are downright uncomfortable. Just like we all remember high school being. But how many people want to be reminded of that?
-
I was sold before now I'm even more sold. I'm going with my friends and having a blast. Can't wait until it opens in Australia.
The other one I'm looking forward to is Monster Camp. -
OK Haters...there's a little movie musical titled "Once" if you simply must skip "Superbad". Most worthy of your $9.50.
-
it will do really well. it has no competition this weekend, and it's got buzz everywhere. trust me. not Knocked Up numbers, perhaps, but it's gonna be big.
-
You philistines need to shut the fuck up. Seriously.
-
Amen!!
-
and the movie isn't overhyped. I laughed through the whole thing.
-
perhaps "righteously pissed"...if whiners and naysayers didn't infest every TB, I could gladly be as gidy in the talkbacks as I am in real life. superbad coming out...just had the best screening of my life at visionfest at the DGA, good stuff. I suppose your right. whiners in the AICN talkbacks really shouldn't get me so riled up. I've just been coming here for 7 years listening to the same rubbish. it's tiresome.
-
I'm not serious....
-
It's that good?
-
First of all, this was great. Just great. The first thing I saw walking in was Steve, KOK's "hero", getting his picture taken with Tony Hawk and Vince Vaughn.
They did a quick little Q&A after the movie, and director Seth Gordon dropped a few interesting bits of news on the crowd. First of all, he had a telling comment about Billy Mitchell. Throughout the filming of the doc, he explained, Billy would make these grandiose, smarmy statements (most of them end up in the film). In the movie they're funny enough, but apparently he would flub them constantly and ask for numerous retakes to get them right. I'm guessing most of these will end up in the DVD extras.
He then mentioned that, at 2AM that morning, Steve had received an email from Twin Galaxies. It said that they were revamping their policy for authenticating record scores. If you want to set a record in most classic arcade games now, it has to be done in a live venue with a Twin Galaxies referee present, and immediately after the circuit board for the game has to be sent away to a lab for verification. It's a strange announcement, considering that Billy Mitchell claims to have set another world record (accepted by Twin Galaxies) at some convention a few weeks ago...with no video evidence and no TG Ref present. Of course, the announcement is not retroactive to Billy's "record". And it's especially strange considering that Steve was going to break his own record at the film's afterparty.
But the afterparty was the highlight of the night. First of all, here's a barometer for how well-liked a guy Steve Weibe is and is going to become on a larger scale: Vince Vaughn was there hanging around, and aside from a few ladies that encircled him, EVERYONE was focused on Steve. He sat down to take on DONKEY KONG once again.
In the movie, there's a clip of Billy telling the director that he always enters his scores on Donkey Kong with the initials "USA" because he's patriotic. Steve, drinking pretty much the whole game, ended up with a score of over 861,000 which, I believe, is one of the top five scores of all time. What at first were groans of anguish that we didn't witness a world record quickly turned to a standing ovation.
Steve, quickly waiving to the crowd, promptly signed off on his game as "USA".
If you live in LA, NYC, Seattle or Austin, get out and see this movie this weekend - it's one of the five best films you'll see all year. -
It was so damn good. I don't care if we get 10 reviews. It just gives me more reason to rave about it in the talkbacks
-
Aug 17, 2007 10:37:03 PM CDT
yes, tool - let's do all we can to support these movies
by cant_stop_yawning
what are you talking about? this wasn't some eye opening independant art house flick. it wasn't even solid entertainment. it dragged ass through the last hour and rubbed our collective faces in some of the most worn out cliches of the last 30 years. puke jokes? dick jokes? the leads in this movie are solid - especially cera. they deserved a better script and editing. check out clark and michael's web site - those episodes are worth watching...
-
I'm sorry, this movie is not Lord of the Rings. It's an intelligent throwback buddy comedy. Good! Great! I'll buy a ticket! But the onslaught of hype is wearisome, and that's what I object to. Not the movie itself, but the single preview I've been seeing every single time I go to the theater since... shit, seems like since 2006. Not the movie, but the ads, all over AICN, all over MySpace, all over the internet. Not the movie, but the critics falling all over themselves to see who blow the butt-trumpet loudest.
I don't consider myself a stereotypical talkback hater... I'm more like a demented semi-troll with lucid moments... and I'm sorry, but when I find myself LESS inclined to see a movie, solely because of the publicity the movie recieves, isn't that worth noting?
-
Aug 17, 2007 11:15:02 PM CDT
For instance, I found "Knocked Up" greatly disappointin
by daddylonghead
g. There was all this hullaballoo, but about 2/3 of the way through the movie, my smile weakened, slowly died, and never came back. The movie ended up being some queer moralistic feel-good Gen-Xer back-patting movie about the beautiful circle of life's continuance. BOOOOOO.
Now, King of Kong does look good. And you know, I hope Superbad really does live up to the hype. But I remember seeing Napoleon Dynamite when it first came out, thinking, "huh, that was off-beat and cute, pretty funny stuff." Then the next thing you know, pop culture's trying to center a fucking youth movement around it, like it's Pink Floyd's The Wall or something. -
No.comedies that are actually FUNNY, actually R-rated, and actually have a heart to them should be promoted heavily in arenas like this. the better this does, the more likely another similar movie gets greenlit, and Daddy Day Care 2 get dumped. and if seeing 5 reviews on AICN irks you, flip your D&D dice, choose one to read, and move on. I'd rather see 5 reviews for this than Hostel3 any day.
-
Get over yourselves... Damn!
-
You're a little bit HOSTEL yourself, ohhh punnn.
And don't knock HOSTEL 3... that's the one where they torture hermaphrodites! -
... and you no longer want to see it because you feel that AICN and other websites have been promoting it so heavily... then don't see it. We'll be the ones killing ourselves laughing at the cinema while you sit on AICN moaning about how the movie's been ruined for you. Bottom line America: if a movie is genuinely funny, no amount of people saying, "Holy shit that's the funniest movie I've ever seen!" can ruin it - if it's funny, it's funny.
-
You shall be my new God. Seriously dude, well said and damn straight.
-
KNOCKED UP is by far the most overrated movie this year in my opinion.
-
Knocked Up, IMHO, was a funnier film. I choked laughing in that. With Superbad I had a good time but was left a bit wanting - I don't know why, maybe because I felt I saw a lot of the funniest shit in the trailers and promos and online clips a number of times before. Also, this dumbass little kid behind me kept shrieking laughter with his helium voice during some of the probably quieter, wittier moments.
I loved all the actors, think they're great, just preferred Knocked Up. And I feel bad! -
... I think KNOCKED UP is a richer film, and it says more, but I think SUPERBAD is more lunatic funny.
-
expectations can have an effect on how any film is perceived comedy or not. but if you keep reading about something and everytime you read about it it was being called the funniest film of the year and as good as "animal house/revenge of the nerds/insert your classic comedy name here" that sets a pretty high standard to live up to. I imagine I would have found borat much funnier than I did if I walked into with the baggage of over the top praise and hype leading up to it. Ilove the Borat character always have since back in his t.v. days but that film was so built up by nearly everyone by the time I saw it was impossible for it to live up to what had been built in my mind.expectations can be a killer to a point that I am only reading the bad reviews of superbad from now on as this is the film I have been most excited about all year due to the fact that I think jonah hill is going to be a fucking comedy legend if he is used correctly and I don't want to be let down by it.
-
Boy, if only Superbad was everything it was hyped as. For the first half hour or so, it's achingly funny with some of the best filthly banter spoken on screen in ages - perfectly on track to be that great unvarnished, true-to-life teen flick that I was hoping for. But then the cops take Fogel under their wings and the movie just loses its nerve. Sure, it's still entertaining in its own way, but it becomes a much more artificial film that it promised to be. It becomes over-the-top and unrealistic in ways that would be fitting for an Adam Sandler comedy - which doesn't make it bad, per se, but it should exclude it from the kind of effusive critical praise it's gotten. I also thought it fatally punked out in hooking up the main characters with the girls of their dreams. Come on, now. Does that really reflect the true teen experience? Again, it doesn't make the movie bad, just mediocre. The Last American Virgin (1982) was a teen movie that had real balls and the ending to prove it. Superbad, on the other hand, is merely a lightweight piece of fluff that likes to talk with a dirty mouth.
-
http://tinyurl.com/3xusbe
-
Well, Superbad made a BIT more than, ahem, 4 mil this weekend. So, "I'm a man of my word". Here's my high school graduation picture:
http://tinyurl.com/38pulv
Please, be kind.
-
That's 1989, and every parted-in-the-middle feathered bit of it.
-
I didn't expect you to actually go through with it. You really are a man of your word. It would have been nicer if that was a more embarrassing photo, but I appreciate the gesture anyhow.
-
I loved it. But. There was virually no story... Which was it's only weakness I guess. I'm going to have to say Knocked Up was better because of this. Superbad is just as funny as Knocked Up tho.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 273 total posts 271 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 92 total posts 92 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 160 total posts 69 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 151 total posts 63 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 67 total posts 59 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 60 total posts 57 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 484 total posts 49 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 69 total posts 42 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 120 total posts 32 posts
- SPACE 2099!! -- 183 total posts 24 posts