Let's face it, summer jobs almost always suck. It doesn't matter what you're doing, becuase that's the time of year when you should be relaxin' and hangin' out at the beach. Work, in any of it's forms, will always lose by comparison. So the only recourse is to make the best of it, and if you're lucky learn a thing or two while you're slaving away. Adventureland, written and directed by Superbad's Greg Mattola, captures the mood of just another lazy summer back in the 1980's so perfectly, and might be one of the best coming of age stories ever.
James(Jesse Eisenberg) is a smart kid, but with little real life experience. He's just graduated from college and is looking forward to a dream trip to Europe with is buddies. Fate, however, has other plans, as his father gets demoted and...no more money for Europe or any other country. In order to save up money, he takes a crappy job at an even crappier Pittsburgh amusement park. The rides are being held together by spit and bailing wire, and the corn dogs are inedible. Resigned to a dull summer of Big Ass Pandas and rigged park games, James meets and becomes friends with Em(Kristen Stewart), an intriguing but somewhat disillusioned co-worker. He also becomes friends with the brilliant but socially awkward Joel(Martin Starr), as well as the park repairman Connell(Ryan Reynolds). Connell is the big fish in a relatively small pond, telling stories about his lame band and the time he played with someone famous. And then there are the park owners, Bobby and Paulette(Bill Hader & Kristen Wiig), who have a very unique way of running things, to say the least.
As James begins to loosen up and open himself to new things, he kinda becomes the new toy that everybody wants to play with. All the guys in the park are crazy over the hottest girl at the park, Lisa P., who so typifies the 80's female that I thought she would reenact the chair scene from Flashdance. She does spend a good part of the film dancing, though. She takes a liking to James, which causes all sorts of problems in his budding relationship with Em, who also has a big secret of her own she's trying to hide. It's all one big soap opera, but that's what makes it so much fun. Everybody's got their part to play, and their own story to tell. And as anybody who's been a 20 year old working around a bunch of other 20 year olds knows, it always turns into your own little episode of The Young and the Restless.
Greg Mattola seems to be working on another level here. This isn't nearly as overtly raunchy as Superbad was. It's a much sweeter, more mature film, which makes sense because these are a slightly older bunch. The relationship budding between Em and James feels honest and is more adult than a lot of others I've seen. Don't be fooled, there's still plenty of sophmoric humor to go around, such as James's buddy who repeatedly punches him in the balls.
I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role, mainly because he always plays such intellectual characters that I didn't think he'd fit in with a comedy like this. But I was way off. It's because of his adeptness at playing those roles that he's good here, as one of the key components to James's likeability is that he's a smart guy learning to loosen up. Kristen Stewart is absolutely perfect here. She's too good for a movie like Twilight, or The Messengers, or whatever other crap she's been doing lately. This is right in her wheelhouse. Em is smart and mature beyond her years, and Stewart plays the part beautifully.
Adventureland probably won't wow anybody coming in expecting another Superbad. The TV spots are slightly misleading. But what they will get is a quietly brilliant, funny and sweet coming of age story with a hell of a lot of twists and turns. Well worth the price of admission, and no height requirement to enjoy this ride.
8/10
