Adventureland (2009)--4/5

The trailers for "Adventureland" are advertising it as an eighties teen workplace/sex comedy. "Adventureland" is so much more. It's not even a teen movie, although the characters revert to their younger selves at times. To save money for grad school, Oberlin grad James (Jesse Eisenberg) is reduced to working with other helpless peers at the Pittsburgh-area amusement park.

"Adventureland" has a near-perfect ratio of good jokes to attempted jokes. Martin Starr, essentially maturing his "Freaks and Geeks" role, delivers some of the best lines, like, "We are doing the work of pathetic, lazy morons" and "Forty percent of these goldfish are dead." Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and Matt Bush are reliably funny, as well.

"Adventureland" towers over brethren like "Wet Hot American Summer" by working just as well as an obsessively-soundtracked romance. It's like a lost John Cusack movie (minus John Cusack), bridging the gap between high school ("Say Anything...") and midlife crisis ("High Fidelity"). Eighties music really is the perfect focal point for this kind of movie. James and Em (Kristen Stewart) listen to The Replacements in a car while the park's resident sexpots dance to the twentieth daily playing of "Rock Me Amadeus." Everyone agrees that Lou Reed is the coolest. Some actually listen to him.

In "Adventureland," nights are parties with people you don't really think you like. Days are blurred hangovers at work. In spite of his clear, often stridently wielded, intelligence, James falls into trouble in the style of The Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" video.* At his lowest moments, he clings to the promise of three months from now.


*I'm thinking of the chase in the park ("Adventureland") as compared to the convenience store scene ("1979").



smashing pumpkins - 1979 - smashing pumpkins