Adventureland
Dir: Greg Mottola
Rating: 3.0
Miramax Films
107 Minutes
Call it blind fortune but after I returned home from viewing Adventureland, director Greg Mottola’s paean to his ’80s youth, a copy of American Graffiti had just arrived via Netflix. Much like Mottola’s film, George Lucas’s homage to his childhood features period music, youthful wistfulness mixed with the sadness of an epoch ending and though probably resonant for a multitude of baby-boomers, a lack of substance or a particularly interesting script. Just like Lucas did in 1973, Mottola hopes the tone of the zeitgeist and our culture’s hunger for all things in the past is enough to fuel interest in his trip down memory lane, and for the most part he’s correct.
Adventureland concerns the vernal exploits of one James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg perfecting the twitchy Woody Allen neuroticism he brought to Roger Dodger and The Squid and the Whale) whose dreams of going to Europe have been dashed the summer after he graduates from college. Like many a young man, James fancies himself a writer and plans on attending graduate school in the fall to hone his craft. Instead, he is forced to remain in Pittsburgh and take up employment at the eponymous amusement park.
Set to a slew of ’80s songs as hip as the Replacements to cheeseball requisites such as Falco and Poison (somehow Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground slip into the mix), Adventureland is really a story of self-discovery as James falls for co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart), a depressive nonconformist with a dead mother and an uncaring father. She also happens to be banging the much older, married park maintenance man (Ryan Reynolds). Though James’s affection is returned by the beguiling Em, she wants to “go slow” with him and soon his interests turn elsewhere.
What is most surprising about Adventureland is the film’s sweetness, especially following the gross-out fest Superbad turned out to be. Sure, there are jokes about vomit and being punched in the balls, but the grotesqueries of Jonah Hill are nowhere to be found. Though James may be a one-dimensional douchebag virgin, Em’s character has a surprising amount of depth, though her domestic issues are a little one note. Mottola also peppers the film with a crew of interesting supporting characters. While many will love Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the amusement park bosses, Martin Starr is the standout as Joel, a Gogol reading romantic and James’s best friend at Adventureland.
Despite an awkward ending that feels forced, the underlying sweetness of Adventureland carries the film. Though far from indelible, these characters are all likable, even Reynolds as the creepster maintenance man who uses a false story of meeting Lou Reed to get laid, and Eisenberg and Stewart have cute chemistry together. But there is something that feels false about Adventureland. The ’00s have been full of ’80s revivalism, all the day-glo and synthesizers a backlash to a similar hawkish administration that hovered over the previous era; just listen to bands like Cut Copy and M83. So, this return to John Hughes territory feels expected. But after viewing Fast Times at Ridgemont High again, a film made in and of its times, Adventureland comes off as a waxwork facsimile, kids in bad wigs and retro clothes that come off as actors, rather watching inner lives. Of course, the story hews close to Mottola’s ’80s experience, but there is no reason not to set the film in the present. No reason except nostalgia and in the case of Adventureland, there is little else here.
by David Harris
