Movie Review: “Adventureland”
Rating: 68
“Adventureland” is hardly the wild ride it advertises, but Greg Mottola’s follow-up to “Superbad” is a smart coming-of-age story, staking out that awkward territory when, as Nick Lowe once sang, the main character is “half a boy and half a man.”
In 1987, James (Jesse Eisenberg) finishes his bachelor degree with a master plan: spend the summer hiking through Europe before moving to New York City for graduate school. Then his parents’ finances bottom out, leaving James without many prospects other than a summer job at Adventureland, a rundown amusement park outside Pittsburgh. It’s a dismal place full of peeling paint where co-workers like Joel (Martin Starr) and manager Bobby (Bill Hader) matter-of-factly explain how the games are rigged and how the rides could turn deadly.
James is a smart young man whose ideas and emotions spill out too easily — a trait that can be off-putting to people who aren’t as bright or don’t share the same wavelength. On his first day at Adventureland, James becomes fully amused by Em Lewin (Kristen Stewart of “Twilight”), a cool beauty who listens to the right music and radiates the intelligence James shares and the confidence he needs.
Thanks to dodgy parenting and daddy issues, Em grew up quickly and she’s carrying on with Connell (Ryan Reynolds), the quasi-hip, married repairman at the park. James, who stayed a virgin because he equates sex with love, falls in love quickly with Em, and while she returns his attention, life is complicated by hormones, bad decisions and the uncertain future.
“Adventureland” captures its time, place, music and mood with deadly accuracy, and the score by Yo La Tengo certainly helps. It was the pop-cultural moment when all the different factions of the newly dead new wave scene went to their own separate corners and stopped playing nice. The lightweights moved on to acid house or dance-pop groups like Expose, and the hardcore reveled in Replacements, Husker Du and anything that smacked of Lou Reed. That division is deeply felt in “Adventureland,” as if the main characters are just marking time, waiting for Kurt Cobain while “Rock Me Amadeus” repeats in the background.
The previews promise an enthusiastically profane second helping of “Superbad,” and there are just enough moments of nasty humor to fit into a misleading trailer. But “Adventureland” best resembles the final scenes of “Superbad,” when Seth and Evan get a glimpse of what awaits them in the fabulous world of adulthood. “Adventureland” is about that early ‘20s transition, when residual teen angst and heartbreak is compounded by the onset of real life.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment