Adventureland

Review By: Ryan Hamelin
RyanHamelin@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: A-
DVD Features Grade: C+
Overall Grade: B

The biggest obstacle for Adventureland when it was first announced was the preceding work of its Writer/Director, Greg Mottola. Everyone thought that it was going to be Superbad 2 in the 80’s, and this was a very poor choice by the marketing department. What he actually made is a heartfelt and nostalgic look back at his own summers working for the titular theme park, a park which they were unable to shoot in due to its more modern updates. The movie is funny, occasionally laugh out loud in this regard, but it’s never trying to reach the comedic heights of past Judd Apatow productions. By trading laughs for honesty, Mottola took a considerable risk at the benefit of not only his characters, but the believability of his little universe. Make no mistake, whatever movie you think you are going to see, Adventureland will manage to surprise you; Whether or not it’s a welcome surprise is entirely up to you.

A film like this is only as good as its ensemble, and Mottola has assembled an incredibly strong showing across the board. Whether or not Jesse Eisenberg becomes the next Michael Cera, i.e. playing the exact same character until long after he has worn out his welcome, remains to be seen. In the meantime, he is incredibly gifted at being the awkward teenage protagonist, the person you cringe for and root for simultaneously. His chemistry with Kristen Stewart is undeniable, and this is easily my favorite performance of hers to date. Twilight was a hollow mess, Into the Wild was great if uneven, and here she actually has the room to stretch herself, to give a performance that is conflicted, layered, and wholly humanizing in a manner she hasn’t been able to since. Don’t rule her out as an actress until you see this film, and hopefully she’ll get a chance to spread her wings again as Joan Jett in The Runaways next year. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig make for an absolutely hilarious oddball couple, both proprietors of the theme park and disillusioned by their customers and their staff. Hader in particular, ridiculous mustache in tow, wields the kind of comedic screen presence that has been missing since the heyday of SNL alums Adam Sandler and Mike Meyers. However, the real standout of the cast is the always-reliable Ryan Reynolds, who brings a sympathetic spin to a wholly unsympathetic character and draws on a reserve of dramatic talent that most people will find surprising when they consider the rest of his filmography. I don’t think Reynolds has ever played a guy with such a dark undercurrent to him, and instead of letting it become a matter of black and white, a simplistic villain character, he retains a deeply flawed but believable moral center which keeps him squarely in the grey at the end of the film.

“Grey” is a good way of ...