Hangin' With the Kids at 'Adventureland'

by Brett Parker

Adventureland is Greg Mottola’s latest film after the smash hit comedy, Superbad, and both of these films suggest that Mottola could possibly become Hollywood’s premier director of teenage stories. He’s like Catherine Hardwick in the way he sees young people with a vividness that brings them more dignity and humanity than most teen vehicles are willing to allow. So far, he seems to specialize in teenagers who make it their holy quest to get laid (a routine plot device in Hollywood) and he pulls it off with a surprising honesty and sympathy.

The film takes place in 1987. We meet James (Jesse Eisenberg), an awkward yet sincere teenager who’s just graduated from college. His future plans include moving to New York City to attend the Journalism program at Columbia grad school. While having a celebration dinner with his parents, they inform him that their job circumstances have been downgraded and they may not be able to afford their son’s big move to the city in the fall. It grows increasingly clear that in order for James to truly pay for grad school, he’ll dreadfully have to get a summer job.

James has spent most of his life tied up in his academic endeavors; therefore he’s never really had a real job of his own. This inexperience leaves him qualified only to hold down a gig at Adventureland, a third-rate local theme park filled with shabby rides and games. With a scruffy t-shirt and a lack of enthusiasm, James is ordered by the park’s quirky manager (Bill Hader) and his supportive wife (Kristen Wiig) to supervise a series of carnival games and protect its cascade of giant prizes (“Nobody ever wins a big ass panda!” is the staff motto).

James quickly realizes that the job sucks. All of the other young people at the park have reached the same conclusion. Since they are all stuck in these dead-end shifts together, they all quickly become the best of friends, going to parties and clubs outside of the job. James quickly takes a liking to Em (Kristen Stewart) a down-to-earth hipster beauty who shows immediate affection towards him. They slowly begin to tip toe around romance in a summer love kind of way, but James doesn’t realize that Em has secret romantic trysts with Connell (Ryan Reynolds), the rocker-cool maintenance man of the park. Connell is the kind of swaggering display of testosterone that would usually swoon a girl just like Em, but she also finds herself touched by the sincere sweetness of James. Things grow more interesting as James and Connell form a delicate friendship and the park’s top beauty, Lisa P (Margarita Levieva), throws her lusty sights towards James’ way.

Adventureland is a laid back film with great attentive detail to youthful life. We all remember what it was like to hold down a mediocre summer job and tread the murky waters of teenage dating, so it’s rather impressive how well this film captures these peculiar details of young life. The Adventureland scenes wonderfully illustrate the redundancy and boredom that entails such an enterprise, highlighting the mundane irony in daily activities that are meant to create “fun.” The scenes involving the awkwardness of teen dating are not played for the usual slapstick jokes, but show these kids trying to say and do the right things while desperately concealing their cluelessness. There’s a pitch perfect scene where a nerdish employee named Joel (Martin Starr) tries to ask out a co-worker named Sue (Paige Howard) he drunkenly made out with. We’ve seen a nerd ask out a cutie a million times on the silver screen, but notice how heartfelt and genuine this one feels: these two really do have a genuine affection for each other. Joel tries his hardest to say the perfect words without seeming pathetic as Sue gives him an honest and understandable rejection she truly feels bad about. We feel as crushed as Joel does, proof of how effective this observation is.

While Adventureland may not be as funny or adventurous (no pun intended) as Superbad is, the film still shows Mottola making improvements in his directorial efforts. His camera is so attentive to small details, that it comes across like one of those Hollywood ventures that comes dangerously close to resembling an indie dramedy. It would be easy to just label Mottola as a competent comedy director, but he manages to capture young people so well that his observant storytelling cannot be ignored. People don’t realize how hard it is to find a realistic teen film nowadays. Mottola definitely has what it takes to become one of the best in such a genre. He transcends the clever stereotypes John Hughes shined considerable color on while also avoiding the relentless nihilism of Larry Clark. It seems like most teen comedies of today have to choose between honesty and humor. Mottola, like George Lucas on American Graffiti or Richard Linklater on Dazed and Confused, knows how to fuse both into an entertaining package.

Humor and honesty is in no short supply when it comes to the film’s cast. Eisenberg knows how to make us empathize with James; he easily could’ve made him a pathetic dweeb but shows him as a nice kid trying to find his footing in an awkward universe. As Em, Kristen Stewart is blossoming into one of the most unique beauties and compelling personas in the world of young actresses. She’s not a cookie-cutter, teen queen beauty, but has an edge and coolness that makes her more real and desirable than most starlets of today. Ryan Reynolds hits all the right notes as he paints Connell not as an aggressive jerk, but as a dude who knows all the angles and can’t help but being a typical guy. I liked the way he may actually like James while pulling his girl right out from under him. Some of the film’s best scenes are when Connell gives masculine advice to James while trying to mind his own needs. Their final scene together is a subtle masterstroke of concealed emotions.

If Adventureland has one thing going against it, it’s the fact that the plot is basically rooted in familiar territory. Despite the film’s nice touches, we can still call the developments in an almost clockwork rhythm. Teen romance may not be the greatest source of high drama, but we have a nostalgic affection for it anyways. Adventureland doesn’t really make a grand statement about being young but it greatly captures the feeling of being young, a feat that feels rather rare in today’s cinema. Mottola may in fact move on to different genresand topics, but I’m curious to see if he can take this starving genre into new and thoughtful comic territory.