Teen comedies can be lumped into two types: the naughty, farcical variety and the sappy, sentimental reminiscence. Superbad exists in a form shared by only a few of its kind by having elements of both categories but falling into neither. It's exaggerated but not farce, and honest but not cloying. The film is rude and crude, but it's truthful about those elements, about its characters, and, above all, about the experience of being young and stupid. You remember the times: Two beers in the hands were better than one in the bucket. Everyone else thought those other guys were cool, but, deep down, you knew you were cooler than that. Sex was like some mysterious thing that everyone talked about having but no one really seemed to be having it (and if they were, they had no clue how to do it well). In other words, adventure was everywhere you went. Superbad understands all of this and sums it up with one last adventure between friends. The script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg is a lot more intelligent than one might think. The dialogue crackles with vulgar authenticity, the scenario is simple so the humor takes focus, and the observations about friendship have the ring of truth.

Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) (as the characters share the names of the writers, one can't help but think the film is at least semi-autobiographical) have been best friends since grade school. It's their senior year of high school now, and they're preparing to move out into the still-not-real world of college. Evan is going to Dartmouth, but Seth, not as successful at academics, is on his way to the state college. There's an underlying tension between them, but that's not going to stop them from making the most of the last days leading up to graduation. They start the day doing what they do best: Slacking around, discussing porn. Seth's big college decision is which porno website he should subscribe to, while Evan wonders why women can flaunt what nature gave them while guys have to keep it in their pants. Anyway, graduation means parties, and while one bully makes sure they know they aren't invited to his, Jules (Emma Stone) decides to invite Seth to hers that night. Seth promises to get the alcohol, thinks this is his chance to score (in the biblical sense) before graduation, and thinks Evan should do the same with Becca (Martha MacIsaac), who clearly has a crush on him.

They are, to use a cliché, polar opposites, joined in their status as losers and outsiders. I use the term "loser" in an affectionate way. These are two guys who know who they are better than most people their age and only care about what other people think when keeps them from having the fun they want to have. They're nerds, but they know it and embrace it. Seth cares about girls in the way horny teenage guys typically do and judges his success at school in how far he's gotten sexually (which, as little as he has gotten, he isn't afraid to boast about). He swears in ways to make a sailor blush, and the real crux of the success of Rogen and Goldberg's screenplay is the way they make their dialogue reflect the characters without drawing attention to the differences in the way the characters talk. Seth admires Evan's mom's (Stacy Edwards) cleavage, and says he's jealous that Evan was breast fed. That's funny, but Evan's response, which makes absolutely no sense in returning the friendly jab, is perhaps funnier because it instantly establishes Evan's inability to keep up with his friend, no matter how hard he wants to try.