Analysis of a clip from "Superbad"

"Superbad" is an American comedy film that was released in the summer of 2007. It falls under the sub-genre of a teen-movie and deals with typical teenage high school issues such as maturing, sex and drugs, much like other movies that come under the same category. For example "American Pie", "John Tucker Must Die" and "The Girl Next Door" to name a few. The film proved to be a critical and commercial success and it is the highest domestic grossing high school comedy of all time!

Narrative:
The narrative of these types of movies is predictable. The protagonist of the film almost always serves as an underdog. He falls for a girl much higher up in the high school social ladder, therefore in order to get her to notice him he trys to impress her in a number of different ways. For example, purchasing alcohol. There is a narritive moment in any type of film and in teen-movies it is what can be considered as the funniest part of the film. This is when the main character usually makes a fool out of himself. After some struggle and more often than not at a party, the guy manages to get his girl in a 'happily ever after' ending.

Characters:
All three characters portrayed in the clip are common stereotypes found in most teen-movies. Fogell is the Geek, Seth is the Rebel and Evan the protagonist (underdog). Their roles are represented through their actions and behaviour. Seth is aggresive and loud. It is clear that he asked Fogell to get a fake ID therefore presenting him as the ring leader of the trio demonstrating his rebelious nature. Fogell gives into pressure and tends to 'mess up' to a certain degree. This is shown by him purchasing the fake ID and using a fake name with an excessivly high exaggerated age. Evan's role is not depicted greatly though he is represented as being calm and hopeful and breaks up any tension in the group. This indicates he may have the lead role.

Iconography:
The iconic elements associated with the movie in this particular clip include drugs. In this case the drug being abused is alcohol. The 3 boys attempt to use a fake ID to purchase alcohol to give to the girl that Evan is 'in love with' and by doing this Evan would 'impress' her to a certain degree. Furthermore, the 3 boys appear to be standing outside of the school building. This represents the fact that they are teenagers from high school. From the fact that 3 boys who are in high school have purchased a fake ID to buy alcohol, viewers can connote they may be buying the alcohol to get girls drunk in order to sleep with them. This brings up the the idea of Sex (another element associated with the movie). Also they may be committing all these actions at a House party (another element associated with the movie).

Setting:
The setting of the scene is just outside of a highschool building. This shows that the characters are definatley teenagers hence the film being categorised as a "teen-movie".