Revenge of the Nerds
They're not hip. Or sexy. But they are 'Superbad.'
Almost everyone in Hollywood is predicting that "Superbad," a new high-school comedy from the makers of "Knocked Up," will be the sleeper hit of the summer, which raises the question: can a movie really be a sleeper hit if no one is asleep about it? The success of "Superbad" feels so preordained by now that it's tempting to stick a pin in this gassy balloon—but the movie is just too much fun. Starring Michael Cera (TV's "Arrested Development") and Jonah Hill ("Knocked Up") as a pair of dweeby best friends making one last desperate push to get laid before graduation, "Superbad" is two thirds of a teen-comedy classic. As the polite, perpetually mortified Evan, Cera is a world-class sputterer. He delivers all his lines a split-second faster than you expect, turning each joke into a sneak attack. Hill's Seth, meanwhile, is a meatball with a heart of gold. He's foul-tempered, foulmouthed and often just plain foul, but without his best friend, he's like a neutered puppy. Beneath all the sight gags and penis jokes, "Superbad" is a romantic comedy about two boys in love. But not in that way.
The plot is compressed into a single day. The boys get wind of a big party, at which they dream of bedding the only kind of girls who'd ever permit it: really, really drunk ones. "We can be that mistake!" Seth reasons. But to get into the party, they need beer. To get beer, they need a fake ID. And to get a fake ID, they need their pal Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), the dweebiest of them all, whose phony Hawaii driver's license claims that his name is "McLovin." Just "McLovin." Like "Madonna." McLovin and a pair of wack-job cops played by "Knocked Up" star Seth Rogen and "Saturday Night Live's" Bill Hader threaten to take over the movie at one juncture before order is eventually restored. The script, co-written by Rogen and his childhood pal Evan Goldberg, inexplicably sidelines Cera and Hill for long stretches in the middle of the film, and "Superbad" loses altitude whenever they're gone. But when the focus is on them, they're a duo for the ages. As a "Revenge of the Nerds" redux, "Superbad" isn't perfect. But it's super close.
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Devin Gordon is the editor of Newsweek Digital, the umbrella company encompassing Newsweek's various web properties, including Newsweek.com and Newsweek Mobile. Previously, from June 2007 to June 2009, he was senior editor of the magazine's Periscope section, which was nominated for a National Magazine Award for "best section" in 2008. Previously, he was a senior writer, writing about film, television, sports and popular culture for the Arts and Entertainment and Society sections. He was part of the Newsweek reporting team for the past three Olympic games, including the Salt Lake City winter games in 2002, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where he covered swimmer Michael Phelps, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, for which he wrote Newsweek's cover story about skier Bode Miller.
During his tenure at the magazine, Gordon has written about everything from HBO's "The Wire" to rock band Coldplay to Oscar-winner film directors Ang Lee and Peter Jackson. He profiled "Curb Your Enthusiasm" creator Larry David on the eve of the series' fourth season debut, and "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan just prior to the film's record breaking release. For Newsweek's year-end double-issue of 2002, he wrote "The Matrix Makers," (Jan. 6, 2003), a cover story about the two upcoming "Matrix" sequels—the first behind-the-scenes look at the new films by any publication.
Gordon joined Newsweek in 1998, after graduating from Duke University. His first cover story was "The Dominator" (June 18, 2001), an examination of what makes Tiger Woods tick. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
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