Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Must be at least *this *moody and sarcastic to ride this ride: "Adventureland"

I vaguely remember this one sneaking up on me while in theaters and not hanging around long, failing to get the traction of a “Superbad,” “Knocked Up” or other more well-known crude-with-a-heart-of-gold tales. Too bad, because this little story of love and apathy in a 1980s amusement park is one of the better movies of its ilk in recent years.

Directed by Greg Mottola, the same guy who did “Superbad” and a few eps of the unparalleled “Arrested Development,” “Adventureland” introduces us to new college graduate James (Jesse Eisenberg), who plans to spend summer in Europe before heading to grad school in New York. Alas, his dad’s setback at work result in the family moving to Pittsburgh and our hero working at the local amusement park. What a curious turn of events.

As you might guess, the park holds all manner of characters, from boss Bill Hader to sidekick Martin Starr (Bill from “Freaks and Geeks”) to tramp Margarita Levieva to maintenance man/local band member Ryan Reynolds. Oh, and there’s the sulky-cute girl in the form of Kristen Stewart, and since I haven’t seen one second of a “Twilight” movie, I’m not sick of her yet.

The kids knock around the park, then drink and smoke pot at night. Our couple forms a bond, albeit a relatively chaste one, with Eisenberg doing his typical teen angst thing – even if he’s in his 20s now. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, his would-be paramour is hooking up with Reynolds, who happens to be married. Doesn’t seem like she’s much into him, but just sees it as something to do.

Helping this somewhat simple story is the setting and atmosphere – from life in the amusement park to some seriously good ‘80s music. And no, I’m not talking about Cyndi Lauper and Dexy’s Midnight Runners. (Although the monotony of Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus” makes for some hilarity.)

While there are plenty of laughs, this movie separates itself from other recent comedies because of the true notes struck by both Eisenberg and Stewart. Compared with “Superbad” – where I didn’t quite buy the drunken love confessions of the two lead guys – I totally bought these two getting together, then having issues. Reynolds also was believable as the older guy who seems to have it together but is more than a little pathetic.

Yeah, you can say this one got to me a little bit beyond the ha-ha stuff. The latter alone makes “Adventureland” worth a look, but the matters of heart give it more depth and really round out the story. Kind of like those pants rounded out Lisa P.’s butt. Pow!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home