Superbad.

"The bawdy jokes score big points, but it's the rueful acknowledgement of adolescent embarrassment and humiliation that most distinguishes Superbad another ultra-raunchy and commercial sex comedy from the Judd Apatow laugh factory," writes Variety's Todd McCarthy. "Co-written by and featuring Knocked Up star Seth Rogen, this very cheesy-looking account of three horndogs' long night's journey into hazy self-awareness is like American Pie with a conscience.... Although this picaresque little odyssey is decidedly set in the present day, the title, silhouetted opening credits and predominantly funk-soul soundtrack provide a distinctly 70s feel, an impression furthered by a muddy, fuzzy visual style (perhaps partly attributable to nocturnal digital shooting) that harks back to the day when AIP and Crown Intl were knocking out their own teensploitationers."

Updated through 8/13.

"Unfortunately, great gags, even multitudes of them, aren't enough glue to hold together Superbad as a movie," writes Edward Copeland. "If you go expecting to laugh a lot, odds are you will. If you go hoping for a truly great comedy that also works as a film, you'll probably be disappointed."

"Over something between breakfast and lunch last month at the Los Angeles diner Swingers, [Evan] Goldberg, 24, and Rogen, 25, talked with Michael Cieply about the raunchy movie Superbad, which they started writing 12 years ago, when they were growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia."

Adam Sternbergh profiles Michael Cera for New York and Premiere's Stephen Saito meets Cera and Jonah Hill.

Updates, 8/9: Clark and Michael, via Movie City News.

"How funny is Superbad?" asks Erik Davis at Cinematical. "Well, let's just say I was laughing so hard during our interview, tears were streaming down my face. It was embarrassing. And it was the freaking roundtable interview! Now imagine how funny the movie is." Meantime, he's got a clip of Edgar Wright interviewing Hill and Cera. Also funny!

Update, 8/10: Josh Rottenberg moderates a roundtable discussion with Apatow, Rogen, Hill and Cera for Entertainment Weekly. Via Movie City News.

Updates, 8/12: <"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," writes Newsweek's Devin Gordon.

a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12wwln-Q4-t.html?ref=movies">Deborah Solomon talks with Hill for the NYT Magazine.

Updates, 8/13: "I recently wrote that I could happily do without any more movies devoted to the breaking of the male bond," notes David Denby in the New Yorker. "Yet here's an uproarious and touching picture on that theme.... the structure and a lot of the dialogue have become ripely Apatovian. Like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, the movie combine desperately filthy talk with the most tender, even delicate, emotion."

"In essence a love story between Jonah Hill's loud, über-horny Seth and Michael Cera's quiet, awkward Evan, director Greg Mottola's film seeks to mirror the now-patented Apatow formula: severe raunch complemented by aw-shucks sweetness," writes Nick Schager at Slant. "The brash, outgoing Hill and weird, discomfited Cera are a perfectly mismatched, consistently hilarious odd couple, yet it's their convincing affection for each other and shared desire for inclusion that helps prop up the countless nasty gags."

Posted by dwhudson at August 8, 2007 8:01 AM