To make up for the fact that I have no sweeping insight into a particular film to offer you today (the horror!), I’m instead writing two little blurbs. Presenting #1: Superbad.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see this movie when I heard about it. I knew producer Judd Apatow was one of the people behind The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. I seemed to be the only person in my city who actually didn’t really like The 40 Year Old Virgin, and Knocked Up, with its seemingly weirdo take on reproductive health was so unappealing that I didn’t even see it. (Unrelated note: several people have told me that they genuinely liked Knocked Up so maybe I will see it.)
But most of all, from the way the film was marketed, I wondered if I really needed to see another high school boy flick about a bunch of buddies trynna get laid, a la American Pie (haha! pun intended!).
But on a lonely Friday night I decided to take myself out on a date to see it, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I really loved this movie for a lot of reasons (even though there was a certain scene involving menstruation that I coulda done without), most of all for its genuine celebration of how important male friendship is.
It made me think of Anna’s thoughtful post on the value of every kind of love, and how we make such a big deal over couplehood that we neglect and abuse other just as vital forms of love.
And whether or not Superbad intended to, I really felt like it criticised - in a very moving and effective way - the fact that men in our culture aren’t allowed to tell each other that they love each other, and how that like totally sucks, bro.
I could go on about this for a while, but our friend Tuval has already done it for us on The White Ribbon Campaign blog. See his critique right here.
Okay, stay tuned for #2. The suspense!
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three comments
I found Superbad problematic, as I do with all of Apatow's work since Freaks and Geeks. Freaks and Geeks had a well fleshed out female character in the lead and I loved that, but since then his films seem to have these strange (amazingly attractive, successful) female characters who fall for bumbling, often offensive man-children with little explanation. I also found the sex scene in Superbad really unnerving with the "I have to get really drunk to have sex with a drunk girl" logic.
Having said that, Knocked Up, despite the fact that it really didn't appeal to a lot of my feminist sensibilities, was one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time. I don't know how different the uncensored DVD version (which I saw) is from the theatrical release version, but a lot of the "they don't discuss abortion as an option" criticism didn't ring true for me when I saw it. They do discuss it - but they don't however actually say the word abortion in the movie; word has it it was eliminated from the script...
"Instead, the abortion question is dealt with by having one of the four suggest, weakly, "have you thought about . . . something that rhymes with smushmortion." After the laugh, they refer to it as "the A word." Then nothing. No one can even say the word."
http://newsblaze.com/story/2007062708...
Posted by Stacey May
October 19, 2007, 1:16 PM
I think I'm the only person I know who didn't like Knocked Up. I didn't even find it funny. To begin, the entire premise made me annoyed (as if a character like Katherine Heigl's would go through with having his kid, and, even if she did, it was so implausible that she'd fall in love with him). I'm willing to suspend my imagination for films, but I found the film too laced with anti-woman undertones that I couldn't let it slip. I can't recall the exact moments that made me annoyed, but I think it had to do with the gross-out vagina jokes, which seemed really violent at times. One of these taking-advantage-of-women-while-they're-drunk jokes also really turned me off the 40-Year-Old Virgin.
As for Superbad, interesting analysis, Tuval. I haven't seen it but read another interesting critique by Dorothy Woodend on the Tyee.ca, who has a different take on masculinity: http://thetyee.ca/Entertainment/2007/...
Posted by Nicole
October 19, 2007, 2:12 PM
Oddly enough, I completely agree with Dorothy Woodend's excellent review despite the fact that it seems to contradict the review that I wrote. When I spoke to a few friends about Superbad we all expressed a certain level of confusion about the experience. I think there are different ways to read this film but perhaps the most important way to evaluate its real impact is to understand how the majority of movie goers reacted to it. What does the average movie watcher, who is not looking for meaning or feminist critique, understand Superbad? That's what I'd really like to know.
Posted by Tuval
October 19, 2007, 2:35 PM
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