In the discussion of quintessential high school movies, each decade has their iconic entry: the ‘70s had Grease, the ‘80s had Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the ‘90s had Dazed and Confused, the ‘00s had Superbad, and…well, that’s it, apparently. According to Seth Rogen, there hasn’t been a great high school movie since 2007’s Superbad.
On the topic, Seth Rogen, who co-wrote Superbad with Evan Goldberg, told People, “No one’s made a good high school movie since then.” Rogen’s comment stems from working alongside Gabe LaBelle in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. “What’s crazy is that Gabe LaBelle is like, 19 years old and his and his friends’ favorite movie is Superbad…So it never changed for some reason.”
While Superbad was clearly a hit and has a continued following, to say it’s the only good high school movie in the past 15 years is quite an overstatement. One could easily point to other terrific coming-of-age movies set during the high school years, like 2015’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl or 2015’s The Edge of Seventeen or, my personal favorite, 2019’s Booksmart. Or perhaps Seth Rogen just means nobody has made a good high school movie with excessive dick jokes and awkward period sight gags since? With his comment, Rogen is even doing a disservice to some of the movie’s cast, as Jonah Hill co-starred in 21 Jump Street five years after Superbad and Emma Stone led 2010’s Easy A.
Seth Rogen has been defensive of Superbad and its legacy before. When talk of a sequel was rampant, he said, “I don’t think it requires improvement or anything to be built upon it. I’m unbelievably proud of it, it really holds up – people still watch it, high school kids come up to me telling me that they watched it for the first time and how they loved it. It’s worked its way into being viewed as one of the better high school movies that’s out there.” Meanwhile, producer Judd Apatow has been the biggest supporter of a sequel, once saying he would like to see Jonah Hill and Michael Cera’s characters head to college.
What do you think of Seth Rogen’s comments regarding Superbad? Where do you rank Superbad in the best high school movies ever list?
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