Never in all of my years have I heard so many references to sex, alcohol, and the male sexual organ in the first five minutes of a movie! Superbad is indeed as bad as the name implies, but it wasn't just the bawdy and mischievous behavior of the protagonists that made it so. I mean, I wasn't expecting this to be up for an Academy Award, but I certainly wasn't expecting this level of adult content in a teen oriented production! What is so terrible about this movie are the messages that the audience are exposed to by viewing this.
Superbad validates the dominant discourse in the United States that teenagers are crazy and irrational beings who will break/ignore all laws in order to achieve their ultimate goals - sex, drugs, and alcohol. This is by no means an implicit goal - it is the movie's thematic intent. The protagonists, Evan and Seth, who were social outcasts in their high school, sought to increase their social capital by providing alcohol for a huge party of their peers, being thrown in celebration of graduation. In so doing, the teens would "score" with their respective love interests.
With the assistance of a mutual friend Fogell, the boys were able to procure a fake ID with the pseudo name, McLovin. Fogell goes into the liquor store and was successfully able to purchase the alcohol, but was attacked by a man robbing the store. Evan and Seth, who were outside, see the police arrive and flee - realizing they now need to find another way to supply liquor for the party, and more importantly, the women. Fogell somehow ends up on a joyride with the police officers who were supposed to take him home. It is clear that the police characters are jealous of McLovin's (Fogell's) youthful antics, and desire to live vicariously though him. They go off shooting guns, attacking people, drinking in bars, and burning police cars because... that's what teens do right? We do not learn until later in the film that the police officers were actually aware that Fogell was not over twenty one, but they were inspired to be crazy and reckless like the teenagers they once were. Two adults, who just happen to be police officers, wishing they could act like stereotypical teenagers, cannot be helpful in breaking down the dominant discourse discussed earlier.
While Seth and Evan were successful in the end in providing the party with alcohol, neither were pleased with the results. Evan was about live out his dream of sleeping with his love interest, but because she was so intoxicated, he was completely turned off and chose not to continue. Seth was shocked to find that the women he had worked so hard to get liquor for, did not even drink. When he tried to put the moves on her, he accidentally headbutted her in the face.
The two girls and the protagonists make up in the end, but the moral of the movie is basically "don't act like a teenager, and bad stuff won't happen." Is this the right moral to be teaching? Are all teenagers really like this? Absolutely not. Superbad lumps all teenagers into this stereotypical sex driven, perpetual party goer role. Additionally, the way the movie treats race and domestic violence leaves much to be desired. Seth, when apologizing to the women he accidentally headbutted, remarked "you look cute with a black eye."
On a personal note, I found this movie utterly repulsive and not funny at all. I think it glorifies the actions of the main characters, and perpetuates the dominant discourse of teenagers as irrational and mischievous beings. We all know, that only a mere fraction of teens truly act like this.
4 comments:
Ohhhh Nick. This movie made me barf. Way too much racism, sexism, homophobia... oh goodness, the list goes on. I'm soooo glad you watched it, even though you hate it, because now I have someone to commiserate with.
Nice critique here. So how do you see any of our course authors responding to this?
When I saw Superbad, I immediately thought of Greenfield's Fast Forward and her theme of growing up far too fast. At every stage of the movie, the main characters were trying to do something that was beyond their years – especially with the alcohol. The work glorified underage drinking, even when it really didn't pay off in the end. It leaves you with the “And they did this for what?” question, much like the girl/guy who had the plastic surgery in Greenfield’s piece.
All of this also flows nicely into Hine's concept of the "teenage mystique," insofar that Superbad perpetuates the "teenager as a problem” stereotype. The movie basically defines Hine’s argument that this mystique serves as an excuse for parents to “neglect the coming generation and, ultimately, to see their worst fears realized.” These “worst fears” are manifested when the police officers, yes police officers, takes the side of the teens and behaves like them.
This movie doesn’t help the teenager’s case!
Oh, don't forget Christensen!
She argued movies (media) establish a conceptual framework for stereotyping in young people’s minds. She argued that these hidden messages serve as a “secret education” that validates certain behaviors and perspectives as the social norm, while contemporaneously fostering certain degree of social inequality.
Like I had said in the main post, McLovin and endless discussion of sex only hurts teenagers in the long run. What is so sad about this is teens probably had no say in the making of this movie, yet they are the ones made to look like fools.
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