Nostalgia lifts Adventureland

By Vanessa Ho

When I heard that Adventureland was written and directed by Greg Mottola, the same guy that brought us Superbad, I went into the theatre with trepidation not wishing to see another gross-out teen movie but I couldn't have been more pleasantly wrong.

Based on Mottola's own experience of working a summer job at an amusement park, Adventureland is set in 1987 Pittsburg and centers on recent college graduate James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) who is forced to find work after his parent's financial woes find him cancelling his trip to Europe and derails is graduate school plans in New York City.

Finding that he isn't qualified for even manual labour, James ends up working as a carny for Adventureland and there he meets the oddball crew that include Josh (played quirkly by Martin Starr) and his bosses Bobby and Paulette (the always hilarious SNL vets Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig). He also meets Em (Kristen Stewart) and quickly falls for her. As well, he starts to hero-worship Connell (Ryan Reynolds), the amusement park's mechanic, who also happens to be having an affair with Em.

Adventureland isn't a teen comedy but a coming-of-age story. James does grow during his time at Adventureland and learns some things about him and life outside of college.

There is something mesmerizing about Stewart. Every time she is on screen, I can't take my eyes off her. Yes she is beautiful but she imbues Em with some world-weariness that goes beyond her age and displays good chemistry with Eisenberg and Reynolds.

While Eisenberg was effective in showing James struggles, to me, he seemed to be channeling Michael Cera from Superbad or even Juno every time he opened his mouth when speaking his lines.

The other thing missing is more Hader and Wiig. When they were on screen, I laughed and wished they had more screen time.

However, one of the most effective things Mottola did with Adventureland was that he actually brought me to the amusement park. I actually could picture myself going there and felt the summer heat and wind there. The place reminded me a lot of Playland here in Vancouver and even the time I worked at the PNE and wandering through Playland on my breaks. The 80's tinged soundtrack also helped with that nostalgia feel with Crowded House and Falco's Rock Me Amadeus but if I had to listen to that song like 20 times a day, I might want to kill myself too as the characters want to do in the film.