Adventureland

I always like to watch movies featuring someone from a major movie phenomenon, in a role that is totally different and shows they can actually act. The new Star Wars trilogy had Natalie Portman and Hayden Christiansen, both of whom can act and have shown it numerous times, but Star Wars made them both suck. I was curious about Kristen Stewart because as bad as Twilight was, she did nothing to make it better. She was just as awful as everything else in that movie. I know that Adventureland was filmed before Twilight and Stewart has done some other things, but she will forever be the Twilight girl and that is unfortunate. Well, this movie gave her a chance to go and do something completely different and besides, it has a John Hughes feel and who doesn't love John Hughes!

After graduating from college, James(Jesse Einsenberg) finds himself unsure of what comes next. Well, he knows what he wants to come next, but his family is suddenly in financial trouble and he is left to work at a theme park to, hopefully, pay for Graduate School at Columbia. The summer theme park, Run by Bobby and Paulette (Saturday Night Live scene stealers Bill Hader and Kristen Wigg) is a kind of run down place where the employees "are doing the work for morons." James hates it at first, but soon it grows on him. he finds some friends, a guy to look up to (Ryan Reynolds) and a girl, Em(Stewart) James and Em kind of sort of date, but Em has serious issues and spends most of the movie keeping James at arms length. James has a nice supply of weed and he and his friends spend the summer smoking weed, getting drunk and discussing what life has to offer. No one is particularly happy and they get progressively less happy as the movie goes on. There is not much going on in terms of plot because Adventureland is a character study of life in the post college world.

Greg Mottola, who also directed Superbad, has created a very intimate movie, which is a total change of pace from Superbad. Superbad was an over-the-top exploration of high school sex and Adventureland is an exploration of college love. Mottola goes to great lengths in recreating the 19080s, including awesome and sucky music and great/awful hair. This story means a lot to him and it is steeped in the tradition of John Hughes. The connection is not just made because it is set in the 80s, but because he has an ear for smart young people. There are a lot of nice conversations about interesting things going on in the film and all of it sounds natural coming from the actors. Mottola deserves nice credit for that, but a lot of that falls with the actors, as well.

Jesse Eisenberg could be considered a poor man's Michael Cera, as it seems like Cera was probably first choice for this, but I like the subtly Eisenberg brings to James. Jesse has been doing dry wit for just as long as Cera, but he does not feel as detached as Cera when he speaks. Granted, Jesse is playing someone who is a bit detached, but you believe him when he believes he loves Em after such a short time. He has a sincerity in his performance that really plays perfectly with a soft spoken college grad with a love for Charles Dickens and Herman Melville. Kristen Stewart is also soft spoken and perfect in the role. She plays the insecurities of Em really well, but also plays Em's abrasive honest side in a very sincere way. Stewart loses all of that lame Twilight love to play a relationship that feels real. We have all had relationships or almost relationships like the one featured in Adventureland.

Also, the movie is very funny, but not in the way Superbad was. This film has humor that is more grounded, therefore the laughs are not so much big belly laughs, but subtle knowing laughs. The humor comes from the belief that the audience understands and feels what these characters understand and feel. There is an honesty to the whole story that comes through in the dialog and the scenarios. I believe that everything in this movie could actually happen and that is where Motttola mines his laughs. Also, Bill Hader and Kristen Wigg actually tone down their usual personas, but still find a way to be super funny. That is a testament to just how funny both of these people are. Bill Hader is too odd looking to ever be the leading man in a comedy, but he is going to be a force in comedy for a seriously long time.

Adventureland will probably turn some people off because of how much alcohol and weed is consumed, but I think the only way to get through working a whole summer at an amusement park, is to consume such products on a regular basis. The movie doe snot offer any unusual twists and you have a pretty good idea of where the story is going, but the fun of this movie is the journey. Even though the movie is set in the 1980s it feels very current and there is much in it that can be understood by anyone who has been 21 and unsure of what comes next.

Final Grade: A-