'Superbad' is a sophomoric movie involving high-school guys talking vulgarly about vaginas, boobs, penises, scoring beer, drunken partying and wanting to get laid. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you might not think it's necessarily a formula that would appeal to a gay audience. In this case, you would be wrong. I and the group of fellas who joined me for the weekend's biggest box office movie give it a big gay thumbs up. We want to see it again. We McLoved it.

'Superbad' will likely be the sleeper comedy hit of the summer. It's absolutely hysterical. Its f-bomb laden 'R' rating adds an edge to the adventure that the three main characters are on -- an adventure full of hi jinks reminiscent of 'Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.' You might recognize the trademark humor of producer Judd Apatow (director of 'Knocked Up' and 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin'), but major kudos also go to the film's screenwriters, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen (he also plays a ridiculously funny cop in this movie,) for being able to inject nuance into something so brash. The writers are pictured here cozying up with the film's two leads:


What will appeal to gay audiences is

what lies beneath the surface of this movie. Lurking just under the the outer shell of crude language and teenage angst, awkwardness and horniness is a wonderful story about male friendship. Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) are wrestling with the fact that college is going to break up these companions-since-childhood, at least geographically. That pre-graduation tension tests their friendship, jealousies flare up, fights are had. But in the end, these are two guys who will go the distance for one another. They love each other, and during a sleep over end up telling one another so, over and over -- and over, in what may be one of the sweetest male bonding scenes ever. There's a moment in the "I love you" scene where Seth finger-taps his buddy Evan on the nose and says "boop." You can bet that move will be adopted by gays, a soon-to-be iconic gesture of male-on-male love. Boop!

What you won't find in 'Superbad' are super-bad jokes at the expense of gay people -- and there are bunches of funny gay moments. Instead, the movie totally laughs with us, not at us. Ultra-raunchy Seth likes to draw penises. Penises in all shapes and sizes, some dressed in costume. So what. His best friend, mild-mannered and ultra-polite Evan, has a project partner in Home Ec around whom he friskily wraps his arms to help the guy into his apron and then playfully paints cat whiskers on the guy's face using light touches of unbleached flour. Adorable. These guys all dance around their gay tendencies and can laugh about it, but they never laugh at it. There's a difference. There are a couple of minor misuses of variations on the word "fag," but you're sort of able to forgive them in the scheme of things.

Hollywood wanted 'I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry' to be the gay movie of the summer. It failed miserably. It played every stereotype in the book, made a mockery of gay life, and then wanted us to be grateful that it threw in some too-little, too-late messaging about tolerance. Whatever. Given Superbad's target audience, it would have been so easy for the movie to pack in plenty of fag jokes, but it doesn't. In the end, what appears at first to be a "dumb" summer movie is way smarter than that.

'Superbad' isn't a gay movie, its characters aren't gay (that we know of), but the expression of love between two male friends and the fun they have with each other somehow manages to message in its own way that gay is OK. As Seth might say: what's not to f*'-in' love?

Watch the 'Superbad' trailer. The movie isn't as stupid as this makes it appear, I swear it, then go see the movie. You won't be sorry.




'Superbad' Show Times, R-Rated Clip and Uncensored Interviews