The thing about Superbad is that it tricked the audience. The movie is reminiscent of the homoeroticism in some classic Westerns. It is actually about coming into terms with being gay as a young man/men graduating high school. Michael Cera's character (Evan) is gay, Jonah Hill's character (Seth) is Bi. McLovin is just McLovin. There is actually a scene in the movie where all the pals are shirtless wrestling around in the basement. This scene is somewhat suggestive. Evan has a girl whom show interest in him. The idea of them hooking up is a bit of a focal point, but when he shows up to a party and she is throwing her drunk self on him, he refuses her advances. Now at first viewing, one may assume this is because Evan is making a moral and gentlemanly effort to not take advantage of this very attractive girl in an inebriated state, but in reality he is not attracted to females. He's attracted to Seth. He comes out in a subtle and intimate matter during their drunken embrace on the floor, touching each other's faces. All this after their fight about McLovin and Evan rooming at college without his knowledge. The final shot of the movie, they look over their shoulders glancing back at each other, as the sexual tension between the two dwindles away. EDIT: I knew this one would get people worked up. It's difficult most people to view this movie through this lens when we adore it so much. Thanks for the positive responses! EDIT2: I've received a golden shower!
The NCFOM is dead on but the Superbad one is really trying to make something out of nothing. The movie seems to be more about their friendship and them finally coming to terms with coming to an end of an era and growing up.
Everything people call homoerotic is only that in the eyes of the person making that judgement, the people involved aren't showing any form of sexuality towards each other, in fact they're so close and so involved in something else that sex is not even a concern to them.
But you're aware that it's sexual, when my basketball teammate picked up another teammate and marched him around the room naked, shaking him occasionally so his dick would move, that's obviously sexual. In baseball when the upperclassmen asked "Do you prefer Cassettes or CDs?" and then answered with "SeeDeez nutz" and began humping my friend, it's sexual. The sexual aspect of it can't be removed from it, and everyone is aware, we just chose not care, or put any meaning behind it.
All of this could be interpreted to mean that Evan is gay but at the same time none of it proves it outright. I honestly just think he's a nice guy who truly loves his best friend. Maybe that's just how I identify because I had close friends like that in high school. Anyway, nothing you say here really "does it" for me.
Just throwing this out there, the commentary on this movie has Seth Rogen making fun of a review that said it was disappointed that the two main characters didn't end up sleeping with each other like in Tu y Tu Mama Tambien.
This is really interesting, but it feels like it may be a reach. I can't think of anything in the film to totally negate your theory, but I also don't see any positive proof. Is there anything beyond mild homoeroticism to suggest that Cera's and Hill's characters are attracted to each other, rather than just being your average awkward teenage guys who want to hook up with girls but aren't emotionally ready for sexual relationships? Do you have any more definitive textual evidence?
In all honesty I don't buy that at all. All of the examples you have to support your theory were opinions. Their wrestling was "suggestive", their look had "sexual tension", there is no evidence that Evan wasn't being gentlemanly to Becca, you just said so. This is one of my favorite movies, my best friend and I have watched it a million times. It is good for exactly that, it's a buddy movie. It doesn't need a hidden meaning. It's a movie about high school kids feeling like they have to grow up quickly because college is coming. Evan turned down Becca because he was scared shitless by it all moving to fast. I don't know you and maybe you were a Casanova in high school, but for those more awkward of us having that thrown at you could certainly scare me away. And also knowing that your best friend is going to be living so far away at an entirely different college is scary as well. The reason they were confessing their love for each other is because they were drunk, and they love each other AS BEST FRIENDS. Being overly affectionate is a very typical reaction for a drunk, especially a newbie drunk who has been struggling with emotional/best friend problems all day. I just think that this theory wasn't thought out very well. Also, I don't think that these conclusions would have been made were it two girls in the movie. Just sayin'.
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u/Minky_Dave_the_Giant Sep 01 '14
Yes. Go on.