The Fine Line Between Clever and Stupid: Movie 170: Adventureland

Adventureland (2009) by Greg Mottola
starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Ryan Reynolds

In a nutshell: A really great and tender movie that slipped under most radars last year due to some faulty marketing.

Quick synopsis: A young man returns home after graduating from college, only to find that his summer will not be going as planned and that he has to find a job.

Content: Superbad was a big hit for Greg Mottola, and while there are a few similar themes, Adventureland isn't even really a comedy at heart. Yet the studio powers that be decided to pretend that it was yet another teen comedy and covered up the fact that Adventureland is something significantly better. It's nearest kin that I can think of it Dazed & Confused and it comes complete with that film's sense of nostalgia. Except rather than the '70's, Adventureland focuses on 1987.

It's easy to look at Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role and think that Michael Cera must have been unavailable. But Eisenberg is less innocent and helpless and more complex than any of Cera's roles. I think that Adventureland is significantly better with Eisenberg that it would have been with Cera. I recently saw Eisenberg on Conan O'Brien promoting Zombieland, and he is a genuinely interesting and funny guy in a very self-depricating way. Not a trace of ego even as his star rises. I like him a lot despite his neuroses that remind me a little too much of Woody Allen. Hopefully he won't end up as typecast as Cera, but I'm not sure he will be able to play anything else.

Kristen Stewart of Twilight fame is surprisingly good as the love interest and Ryan Reynolds (Mr. Van Wilder himself) avoids his typical smugness that has plagued him in other movies. I even enjoyed a much more subdued than usual Bill Hader and his always-funny counterpart Kristen Wiig (both from SNL). The only other person I recognized was Martin Starr from the short-lived Judd Apatow television show, Freaks and Geeks. It's always good to see him turn up. And perhaps the best casting move made in Adventureland was NOT squeezing in Jonah Hill who seems to be involved in every single Apatow-family film in one form or another, often trying too hard to be funny.

So word has it that Adventureland was a very personal story for Greg Mottola who probably went through something vaguely resembling the events of Adventureland between college and his movie career. Everything is handled with a care that I only wished every movie was given. The characters are very well developed and it is easy to get sucked into their drama. But Adventureland is not melodramatic either. It finds just the right balance of nostalgia (taking place in a very dated theme park), comedy, romance and serious late-teen early-20's issues and should be held in the same regard as Dazed and Confused and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

It's about a kid's plans to move to NYC for grad school getting screwed up when his parents inform him that they can no longer chip in the money they had hoped to. So he takes a job at the local amusement park and quickly becomes immersed in the social life there, regressing a little personally. He is used to stimulating intellectual situations at college and suddenly finds himself wiping up puke. He also finds that he is suddenly quite the ladies man without much effort; something he was clearly not used to. From there he makes and loses friends, gets into trouble and tries to figure out what to do with himself. And it all seems realistic. It is not played up for the sake of theater. He doesn't have a heightened Cameron-level breakdown (see: Ferris Bueller). It's all believable and I related VERY well. Not sure if women will be able to relate as much, But I recognized a lot of situations from my own life and knew exactly what the character was thinking.

There are only two main things I can think of for my wishlist: (1) more of a conclusion for Martin Starr's character, (2) the ending didn't need to be spelled out quite as much. The ending is the only part when you know you are watching a movie because of cliches. Oh well. It doesn't ruin anything, it was just unnecessary.

So, if you like Dazed and Confused (and honestly...who doesn't?) please give Adventureland a try. It underperformed at the box office, and if we want Greg Mottola to get another shot at making a movie he wants to make, then it's gonna take some effort to make Adventureland into a DVD success. Don't be fooled by the trailers that would have you believe it is bascially another Superbad. I'm not saying Superbad was bad (it certainly wasn't) but Adventureland is something differnt. It takes many of the most interesting themes in Superbad and explores them in a more serious, yet still entertaining manner. This guy clearly has a nice touch and I look forward to whatever he is doing next.

One final note: as you would expect from a movie based largely on nostalgia, there is a great soundtrack highlighted by greats like The Replacements' Unsatisfied. Here's a preview