Superbad

Superbad (2007) is an American coming-of-age comedy directed by Greg Mottola and written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as Seth and Evan, two socially awkward high school friends approaching graduation. When Seth is invited to a party hosted by Jules, played by Emma Stone, the boys promise to bring alcohol, hoping that it will help them impress the girls they like before leaving for different colleges. Their plan depends on their eccentric friend Fogell, played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who has acquired a fake Hawaiian driving licence bearing the single name McLovin. What begins as a simple attempt to buy alcohol quickly develops into a disastrous night involving armed robbery, drunk driving, house parties and two irresponsible police officers played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader. Produced by Judd Apatow, the film was based loosely on Rogen and Goldberg’s own teenage experiences in Vancouver, where they began writing the screenplay when they were just thirteen years old. Released in August 2007, Superbad became a major commercial success and helped establish Hill, Cera, Mintz-Plasse and Stone as prominent young comedy actors.

Superbad was filmed throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area during the autumn of 2006, with locations in El Segundo, Culver City, Glendale, Northridge, Brentwood and Westchester. Although the story follows a group of teenagers moving around what appears to be a relatively small American city, the actual filming locations are scattered across a considerable area of Southern California. Production was based partly at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, while the filmmakers used real suburban houses, shops, school buildings, restaurants and streets for much of the action. The various neighbourhoods were deliberately presented as one continuous community, with the characters repeatedly encountering one another despite the considerable distances between the actual locations. The contrast is particularly noticeable during the events of the film’s single chaotic evening, which takes the characters between locations several miles apart.

The boys attend the fictional Clark Secondary School, represented by El Segundo High School at 640 Main Street in El Segundo, just south of Los Angeles International Airport. The school’s main entrance, courtyard and surrounding buildings appear during the early scenes, when Seth and Evan discuss their plans for the evening and their uncertain futures. Seth is particularly excited when Jules invites him to her party and asks him to help obtain alcohol. Fogell subsequently reveals his ridiculous new identification card, which he expects will allow him to purchase alcohol despite being underage. The school scenes also introduce Becca, played by Martha MacIsaac, whom Evan hopes to impress. Built during the early twentieth century, El Segundo High School has appeared in numerous films and television productions, including WarGames (1983), The Hot Chick (2002) and Role Models (2008). Its traditional school buildings, open courtyard and distinctive entrance made it a convincing setting for the fictional suburban high school.

The filmmakers used both interior and exterior areas of the school for scenes involving the students. One of the most memorable takes place during a home economics class, where Seth attempts to impress Jules while preparing food. The scene introduces the awkward attraction between the characters and their different expectations for the approaching party. Emma Stone, making her feature film debut, later recalled that filming with Jonah Hill involved a considerable amount of improvisation, with both actors frequently attempting to make one another laugh. Hill also remembered the classroom sequence as one of his favourite experiences during the production. The school’s appearance in Superbad is especially recognisable because the opening section of the film spends considerable time establishing the everyday environment the boys are about to leave behind.

After school, Seth and Evan visit a small convenience store to browse magazines and discuss their romantic ambitions. This scene was filmed at Overland Mini Mart, located at 4273 Overland Avenue in Culver City. The two stand beside the magazine racks, making increasingly inappropriate comments while examining the publications on display. Although the store appears to be close to their school, it is actually located several miles north of El Segundo. The filmmakers used the real shop rather than a specially constructed set, with its ordinary shelves, refrigerated displays and cramped interior providing a recognisable neighbourhood setting. The scene is an early example of the film’s preference for relatively unremarkable commercial locations over the more polished environments often associated with American teen comedies.

The same area of Culver City was used for the bus stop where the boys wait for transport during their attempts to find alcohol. The location is near the intersection of Overland Avenue and Culver Boulevard, a short distance from the convenience store. Their dependence on buses and other people’s cars becomes an important part of the story, since none of the three friends has reliable transport for the evening. Their increasingly complicated journey takes them away from the school neighbourhood and into other parts of Los Angeles, although the film presents the different locations as if they belong to the same suburban community.

Their first attempt to obtain alcohol takes them to the fictional Good Shopper supermarket, which was filmed at Jon’s International Marketplace at 1717 West Glenoaks Boulevard in Glendale. Seth decides that stealing alcohol might be easier than trusting Fogell’s fake identification, but quickly becomes overwhelmed by the possible consequences. As he approaches the shelves, he imagines several disastrous scenarios in which the theft leads to a violent confrontation with a security guard. The increasingly ridiculous visions culminate in Seth imagining himself being shot and killed inside the store. He eventually abandons the plan and leaves without taking anything. The supermarket’s actual aisles and checkout area provided the setting for the sequence, with the filmmakers turning an ordinary shopping trip into a series of exaggerated fantasies.

The next destination is TJ’s Liquor, where Fogell finally attempts to use his McLovin identification. The scene was filmed at 7 Days Liquor, also known as 7 Days Food Store, at 1700 Victory Boulevard in Glendale, approximately a mile southwest of Jon’s Market. The small brick building has a distinctive sloping metal awning and a car park facing the street. The production temporarily changed the store’s signage to represent TJ’s Liquor while retaining the appearance of an ordinary neighbourhood off-licence. Fogell enters alone and nervously attempts to purchase a large quantity of alcohol, hoping the shopkeeper will accept his identification. Before the transaction can be completed, however, an armed robber enters the store and strikes Fogell, knocking him unconscious.

The robbery introduces Officers Michaels and Slater, played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader, who arrive to investigate the incident. Instead of treating Fogell as a suspicious underage customer, the two policemen become fascinated by his fake identification and decide to take him along for an increasingly irresponsible evening. The actual 7 Days Liquor storefront is clearly recognisable during their arrival, as are the parking spaces and commercial buildings surrounding it. Filming also took place in the shop’s car park, where Seth is struck by a passing car while he and Evan wait for Fogell. The driver, Francis, played by Joe Lo Truglio, initially appears apologetic and offers to take the boys to a party. This seemingly fortunate encounter leads them into an entirely different set of problems.

Francis drives Seth and Evan to a crowded house party in Northridge, in the San Fernando Valley. The property used for the sequence stands on Community Street, near White Oak Avenue, in a quiet residential neighbourhood of detached houses. The party is already well underway when the boys arrive, and it soon becomes clear that Francis is not particularly welcome. After being confronted by the other guests, he becomes involved in a violent argument, leaving Seth and Evan to fend for themselves. Realising that they still need alcohol for Jules’s party, the two begin searching the house for anything they can take with them.

The Northridge party provides the setting for several of the film’s most embarrassing moments. Seth becomes involved with an older woman who dances provocatively against him, leaving a suspicious stain on his trousers that he only discovers later. Evan, meanwhile, accidentally wanders into a room occupied by a group of adults taking cocaine. Mistaken for someone who has been hired to entertain them, he is forced to sing a song before they will let him leave. The scene became particularly memorable for Michael Cera’s awkward performance of “These Eyes” by the Canadian band The Guess Who. Cera later recalled that several versions were filmed, including one in which he performed Sisqó’s “Thong Song”, but the filmmakers eventually selected “These Eyes” for the finished sequence.

The party scenes were among the parts of Superbad most closely connected to the writers’ teenage experiences. Rogen and Goldberg later explained that they had attended parties where adults were using cocaine, while the idea of stealing alcohol and carrying it away in empty laundry-detergent containers also came from real incidents. For the film, the boys fill large plastic containers with stolen alcohol before escaping from the house. The scene continues onto the residential streets around Community Street, where they attempt to make their way towards Jules’s party. Their journey soon deteriorates into an argument, exposing the tensions created by their approaching separation after graduation. Several nearby streets were used for the walking and confrontation scenes, including the area around Community Street and Jamieson Avenue.

Northridge also provided the exterior of Evan’s family home, located at 17200 Rayen Street. The house appears briefly during the early part of the film, establishing the ordinary suburban environment in which Evan lives. Its quiet residential surroundings contrast with the increasingly disorderly events that follow later that evening. The filmmakers used several houses in this part of the San Fernando Valley, making the neighbourhood one of the production’s most important residential filming areas. The relative proximity of the houses allowed the production to move between different settings without having to travel across the entire Los Angeles metropolitan area for every scene.

While Seth and Evan struggle to reach their destination, Fogell spends much of the evening accompanying the two police officers. Their first major stop is the fictional Bailey’s Bar and Grill, which was filmed at the former Buggy Whip Restaurant at 7420 La Tijera Boulevard in Westchester, close to Los Angeles International Airport. The restaurant had operated since the 1940s and was known for its traditional American steakhouse interior, with dark furnishings, booths and a long bar. In the film, Michaels and Slater take Fogell inside and begin drinking with him, treating the underage teenager more like a new friend than a witness to a crime. They also review surveillance footage from the liquor-store robbery, allowing Fogell to watch himself being knocked unconscious.

The Buggy Whip was a familiar filming location long before Superbad. Its distinctive interior had previously appeared in films including The Doors (1991) and Blow (2001), and it was later used in Date Night (2010). The restaurant closed in 2013 after several decades in business, and the building was demolished in 2017. As a result, the Bailey’s Bar and Grill sequence now provides a record of a Los Angeles restaurant that no longer exists. Although the bar appears to be part of the same neighbourhood as the liquor store, the actual locations were on opposite sides of the city, with the restaurant situated approximately fifteen miles south of Glendale.

The police officers subsequently take Fogell on a series of increasingly reckless adventures in their patrol car. One of the most elaborate sequences was filmed in a car park at California State University, Northridge, located at 18111 Nordhoff Street. The officers encourage Fogell to join them as they perform doughnuts, accelerate across the empty parking area and generally behave in ways that would be unacceptable during an ordinary police patrol. The production used the university’s parking facilities near Lassen Street and Lindley Avenue, where the open space allowed the filmmakers to stage the dangerous driving without ordinary traffic.

The spinning police car was not simply driven around at random. Bill Hader later explained that it was connected to another vehicle using a specially constructed rig, allowing the stunt team to control its movements. The arrangement involved large metal poles and a towing vehicle, and Hader recalled being nervous because the car repeatedly spun close to the car park’s lighting columns. The sequence required precise coordination between the drivers and camera operators, particularly as the actors reacted to the apparently uncontrolled movements inside the vehicle. Rogen and Hader had previously accompanied a real police officer on patrol in South Los Angeles as research for their characters. Rogen later explained that the officer’s aggressive and unusually casual attitude towards police work had helped inspire their performances.

The university car park was also used for the scene in which Michaels and Slater allow Fogell to fire their weapons before destroying their police car. The sequence culminates in the officers setting fire to the vehicle, supposedly allowing Fogell to escape with an exciting story to tell his friends. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who was seventeen during production, later recalled being taken to a shooting range to practise handling firearms before filming. He was particularly surprised by the power of the shotgun used during the scene, which required crew members to stand nearby and help him maintain his balance. The actor was making his feature film debut and had been selected following open auditions advertised at Southern California high schools.

The evening finally brings the three friends together at Jules’s party, which was filmed at a large private residence at 140 North Cliffwood Avenue in Brentwood, an affluent neighbourhood in western Los Angeles. Unlike the comparatively modest suburban house used for the earlier party, this property has extensive grounds, a swimming pool and a more elaborate layout. Its exterior appears as Seth and Evan finally arrive, having spent much of the evening attempting to obtain alcohol for the event. The contrast between the two houses is noticeable, with the Brentwood residence providing a considerably more comfortable setting for the party the boys had been trying to reach all along.

Despite their eventual success in reaching the house, the evening continues to go badly. Seth is already heavily intoxicated and accidentally injures Jules while trying to impress her. Evan finds himself alone with Becca, who has also been drinking, but their encounter becomes increasingly uncomfortable as he realises that she is not in a suitable condition to make decisions. Meanwhile, Fogell finally appears to be enjoying the evening when he attracts the attention of Nicola, played by Aviva Farber, and the two disappear into a bedroom. His success is interrupted when Michaels and Slater arrive and pretend to raid the party. They dramatically arrest Fogell in front of the other teenagers, allowing him to leave the gathering looking like a dangerous criminal rather than the awkward boy who had entered the liquor store earlier that evening.

The production used the real Brentwood property for the party setting, with its spacious garden and pool area contributing to the crowded atmosphere. Among the performers appearing in the background is Danny McBride, who makes an uncredited appearance as one of the party guests. By this stage of the film, Seth and Evan’s attempts to impress the girls have become secondary to the growing tension in their friendship. The two eventually spend the night together at Evan’s house, where an emotional conversation makes clear how much they will miss one another when they leave for college. The simple domestic setting provides a quiet conclusion to an evening that has involved almost constant movement between different locations.

The film ends the following day at the shopping centre formerly known as Fox Hills Mall in Culver City, now Westfield Culver City, located at 6000 Sepulveda Boulevard. Seth and Evan unexpectedly encounter Jules and Becca while shopping, giving them another opportunity to spend time with the girls after the disasters of the previous evening. The boys gradually separate as Seth leaves with Jules and Evan accompanies Becca, bringing their shared adventure to an end. The final sequence was filmed inside the actual shopping centre, which had opened in 1975 and was subsequently expanded and extensively remodelled. A major renovation completed in 2009 altered several interior areas, including the central shopping spaces, meaning that parts of the building now look different from their appearance in Superbad.

The production of Superbad relied heavily on real Southern California locations, despite being inspired by the writers’ experiences growing up in Vancouver. The filmmakers assembled their fictional community from school buildings in El Segundo, shops in Culver City and Glendale, houses in Northridge and Brentwood, and a restaurant in Westchester. Much of the film’s comedy depends on its characters moving between these everyday places, repeatedly encountering problems that make a relatively simple journey increasingly complicated. Several locations have changed since 2006, most notably the demolished Buggy Whip Restaurant and the renovated shopping centre, while the school, liquor store and residential streets remain recognisable. Together, these locations provide an unusually detailed picture of the suburban Los Angeles environment used to create one of the most successful American teen comedies of the 2000s.

---