Adventureland

After graduating university, book-smart virgin James (Jesse
Eisenberg) is forced to get a summer job when his father is demoted.
Working a game booth at theme park Adventureland doesn’t just seem
beneath his education, it’s also his induction into the working
class.

Coming-of-age is a narrative device. It’s rare that an event
represented in a two-hour movie (especially one as non-tragic as a
summer job) can singlehandedly turn a kid into a grownup. But what
makes Adventureland‘s youth nostalgia palatable—enough so that
the film is refreshingly good—is that it’s carefully observed.

Greg Mottola also directed Superbad, but by penning
Adventureland‘s superior script, the comedic ennui speaks from
experience. James falls for troubled co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart).
Their relationship is its own Adventureland—James’ every uncertain
move and decision is about moral self-discovery. Allowing James
fallible qualities gives Adventureland an authenticity missing
from John Cusack’s too-perfect lead in Say Anything….

The 1987 setting provides atmosphere for Mottola’s
semi-autobiographical tale. Against a fireworks display, Crowded
House’s cheesy “Don’t Dream It’s Over” takes on a youthful infinity.
Too bad Mottola didn’t have the budget to keep The Smiths’ “There Is a
Light That Never Goes Out” (the greatest of all teenage love songs),
though the kids at a carnival scenario in Adventureland works as
a companion piece to the band’s “Rusholme Ruffians.”

Adventureland has some of the understated but profound comic
touch of last year’s Hamlet 2. This one isn’t concerned with
social satire, but finds strength in social understanding.

The opening of Sunshine Cleaning throws a loop. A man parks
his car at a gun store, makes a purchase and blows his brains out. It’s
the most bluntly vicious moment in the film. Yet, it’s too easy to
mistake what follows for cutesy-gory-quirkiness.

This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2009.