Roger Ebert gave the movie three and a half stars; no rating scale is spoken.
Ebert always loves story, character development and deepening relationships, and the movie has all of them.
Ebert said it reminded him a little of National Lampoon's Animal House except that it is more mature; the reply is that all movies are more mature than Animal House.

Casting What-Ifs

Shia LaBeouf as Seth; Jennifer Lawrence as Jules; Kyle Gass as Officer Michaels

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 00:51:59Read transcript

Rogen was meant to be Seth but got too old and became Officer Michaels; after about two years without a Seth, Apatow on the Knocked Up set told Jonah to read into a camera and within an hour he was Seth, per a Ringer piece.
Shia was circled for Seth but was offer-only; it could have been the best thing for his career or the worst for the movie, with Transformers in 2007 changing his path and a bad wig needed to dork him up.
An unconfirmed internet claim says Jennifer Lawrence was considered for Jules, the Emma Stone part; she may have been a little young.
Officer Michaels was originally offered to Kyle Gass of Tenacious D.
There was little else because it was their crew and they knew who they wanted.

Recasting Couch

Bigger actress as Michael Cera's mom

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 00:58:33Read transcript

On Becca, the preference goes the other way: surprise that Martha MacIsaac did not have a bigger career.
Bill is asked whether Jennifer Lawrence would make it more interesting next to Emma Stone; the reply is Becca should be more bookish and on Michael Cera's speed, not a second high school babe.
A bigger actress for Michael Cera's mom is suggested with a garbled name ("Carla Gino, Gagino"), and that would be great.
The movie is perfectly cast and too precious to revise.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Filming locations; penis drawings; MPA objection; drunk sex scene; F-word count; real Coke party

In the discussion (9)

Approx. transcript time · 00:59:47Read transcript

The school exterior is El Segundo High School; the mall scenes were at the Fox Hills Mall, later Westfield Culver City, possibly defunct; the opening convenience store is in Culver City.
Per Wikipedia, the McLovin liquor store is in Glendale, though it looks like the Hillhurst plaza with the drawing room near Nathan Fielder's Dumb Starbucks.
The donuts were at the California State University Northridge campus, and the bar is near L.A.X. though it looks like a Valley bar.
The restaurant Fogell names was Rogen and Goldberg's favorite in Vancouver.
David Goldberg, Evan's brother, made close to a thousand penis drawings, only a handful used; the MPA objected to one Becca holds.
Michael Cera and Martha MacIsaac actually got drunk for their aborted sex scene, per the Ringer piece.
Guesses at how many times the word fuck is used include at least 200 and 13, with garbled figures around producer Craig (280, 176) and "over 202".
The Coke scene is based on a real party Rogen and Goldberg attended at 14 to say goodbye to a local stand-up; everyone did blow, and per Goldberg the house belonged to a little person and a bodybuilder couple and there was a pig.
The Ringer piece is a reservoir of anecdotes, such as Cera falling out of a tree early in the shoot; a 15th-anniversary oral history next year is predicted, maybe by The Ringer.

Picking Nits

Why Jules likes Seth; confusing geography; Jules getting headbutted; no older siblings; burned cop car aftermath; too little alcohol for the party's reaction

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 01:15:03Read transcript

Why Jules likes Seth is the most movie-magic part: he gets spit on, fears being Steven Glansberg and melts down in class; only Allie falling for Daniel-san is less plausible, and no other guys pursue her at her own party.
The rundown of her boyfriends, including Matt Muir who looks like Zach Morris with a six-pack since eighth grade, is loved.
The geography is confusing, suburban yet on an obvious L.A. bus; the Valley is assumed, though per Rogen the party was filmed half a block from where Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered in Brentwood.
Emma Stone should not have been hurt; the headbutt and black eye was a weird choice, she forgave too easily, and it may exist to set up the mall apology.
No one has an older sibling to buy alcohol and there is only one parent.
What happened in the 20 minutes after they burned the cop car goes unexplained.
They did not get enough alcohol for everyone to be so stoked when they arrived. — Craig Horlbeck
Follow-up on the same nit: he shows up with two gas cans of green beer that nobody would cheer; you would need to pull in a keg to get that reaction.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Are Michaels and Slater still cops; what Seth and Evan do now; Jules and Becca; Cera and the sensitive male; organ donation

In the discussion (6)

Approx. transcript time · 01:19:35Read transcript

Are Michaels and Slater still cops? They probably moved to private neighborhood security with tasers.
It is funny to imagine the cop character becoming Barry.
At 32, Evan is probably more successful; Seth might be an assistant GM of the A's or a creative director at a porn site, Evan an accounting consultant; they still hang out and their 15th reunion is next year.
Asked whether Jules and Becca ever talk to the guys again, the guess is two dates; Evan and Becca have a better chance to last.
Cera did not create the new-age sensitive male but platformed it; kids absorb such movies, unlike those raised on Animal House, as with early Ethan Hawke films like Reality Bites.
Did the McLovin ID help or hurt organ donation?