Superbad is a horrendously complex film that entertains hugely. Really. But if you want movie info, skip the official site as it only has details about the male actors. And it is the women who make the movie a success.

How to deal with such common media issues as raunch culture, bullying, adolescent alcohol abuse, 'adultescents', and the difficult transition from teenagerhood to adulthood? This film attacks these issues head-on, and comes out the other side smiling.

There are, however, losers (pic). They appear during the evening that is the subject for most of the film, which starts at school (final year, two weeks out from matriculation). The zany cops (Seth Rogen and Bill Hader) are a catalyst for adventure, in which the three intrepid geeks (Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) embark on a quest for pussy and fun.

Anatomical epithets fly thick and fast. From the start, when Seth (Hill) drives up to Evan's (Cera) house discussing on his mobile which porn site to subcribe to, the great unattainable of the adolescent is centre-stage. Fogell (Mintz-Plasse) has a fake ID made that will let the boys buy the alcohol the girls want. Jules (Emma Stone) is Seth's wet-dream and Becca (Martha MacIsaac) is Evan's.

Fogell isn't in this particular loop, and early gets separated when the liquor store he's in is robbed. When the cops arrive, he goes with them.

Meanwhile, Evan and Seth end up in the house of a guy who is an acquaintance of the guy who accidentally knocks Seth down with his car. The people in this house are the 'other' required to generate unity among the three friends. And they are deliberately creepy.

But not too off-colour. Just unpleasant-looking enough to let you be concerned for the physical safety of Seth, who gets menstrual blood on his leg while dancing with a woman he meets there, and Evan, who is forced to serenade a roomful of men otherwise occupied doing lines of coke.

Basically, this is a film about the victory of nerd-dom over superficial suavetee. Becca, pissed off her brain, gets Evan into a bedroom and is all over him before throwing up on the bedcover. Evan, naturally, is concerned about the ethical aspects of this scenario.

Outside, Seth falls flat on his face, crashing into Jules in the process, but recovers in time to rescue Evan from the marauding policemen. This likeable pair of men in blue are fantastics of the highest order of improbability and their lurching, alcohol-fuelled vendetta against the two heroes ends when they total their cruiser and let Fogell empty a pistol into the burning wreck, gangsta style.

They make his fame among the schoolies by pretending to arrest him. But this victory pales in comparison to the one Evan and Seth enjoy when, the morning after, in the shopping centre, they meet up accidentally with Becca and Jules.

Seth and Jules pair up, descending the escalator into a region of higher fancy. Becca and Evan walk away past the shops in search of food and two new bedcovers.

This is director Greg Mottola's first major film, and it is a classic. Seth Rogan, who plays the weird cop with glasses, wrote the script with Evan Goldberg.