Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Superbad
2007 · Greg Mottola · Superbad on Sightlines
4 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch Seth and Evan walk side by side, talking. (staging)
Mottola returns again and again to this mobile two-shot: the boys moving through streets, hallways, and parking lots, always next to each other.
Payoff: This walking-and-talking shot is the film's real subject: the friendship, not the party they're chasing.
Notice Cera's quiet apology against Hill's loud bravado. (performance)
Cera plays Evan recessive and hesitant while Hill plays Seth loud and profane; the film keeps setting these two registers against each other in the same frame.
Payoff: Both styles are cover: the film slowly reveals bravado and shyness as two ways of hiding the same fear.
Listen for the 1970s funk and soul score. (sound)
Lyle Workman's period cues, played by veteran funk musicians, keep entering scenes set in an obviously present-day suburb.
Payoff: The mismatch between old-sounding music and new-looking kids underlines how badly they're faking cool they don't feel.
Notice how ordinary the houses, school, and stores look. (setting)
Generic suburban homes, fluorescent hallways, and a plain supermarket recur as the backdrop for every escalating disaster of the night.
Payoff: The banal setting makes each absurd turn feel like it could happen to anyone, not just movie characters.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch the space between Seth and Evan; the party is the excuse, the friendship is the plot.