Quick Movie Review: Adventureland (2009)

Em and I watched Adventureland yesterday and I really dug it. It was an interesting follow up by Greg Mottola (Superbad) as it wasn't really laugh out loud funny (though I kept laughing pretty loudly, warranting "shush"-es fromo Em). It's a story about growing up from the perspective of a recent college grad who studied literature and wants to be a travel writer, but has to work at an amusement park to make money from grad school in 1987. Along the way, he meets plenty of interesting characters (including Bill from Freaks and Geeks, the lovely Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Kristen Stewart). But like I said, it's not as crazy and wild as Superbad, it's a more subdued movie with a lot more emotion and I can't help but relate to James (our hero) who has no idea what to do with his life now that he's done with school and has a degree in English. There's an Avenue Q song about that right? Anyway, it definitely reminded me of working at Barry's Bagels back home, meeting weird and interesting people who introduce you to all kinds of stuff.

Anyway, like I said I dug it. A few things of note, we had to turn our subtitles on just to make out what everybody was saying. There aren't any accents, it's just that James, played by Jesse Eisenberg is very soft spoken and delivers a lot of under-the-breath lines, which I found to be the funniest. If you turn the volume up too loud, then the damn music kicks in and blows your ear drums (wow, that made me sound OLD). Also, this might be the first movie I can remember where the young stars actually didn't look old enough to be playing their characters' ages. Specifically Eisenberg doesn't look like a college grad, but a high school one. This threw me off for part of the movie because I kept thinking they might get in trouble for drinking in public. I had to keep reminding myself of that. Also, I haven't seen any of Kristen Stewarts other movies (scratch that, she was the kid in Panic Room? huh) and I definitely didn't have the strong feelings towrads her character than Ben had, but I can say that, for the most part, this is the least gross I've ever seen her. What's with the greasy hair? I get that you're pothead, but dress it up a little, you know? High points were when Bill from Freaks & Geeks shows James how all the rides work and when James punches a meathead. All in all, this is a great movie for English majors.