Park life

Adventureland is a smart, gentle coming-of-age comedy from the director of Superbad

SWEETNESS AND SCUZZ: Adventureland

2007’s Superbad was a critical and commercial success for many reasons: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s script, a cast that included talents like Michael Cera and Jonah Hill and of course that magical Judd Apatow fairy dust. But one name I was particularly happy to see in the credits was director Greg Mottola.

Superbad was Mottola’s first film since his excellent 1996 indie family comedy The Daytrippers and it was good to see him back in the movie game. The movie’s popularity can’t have been bad for his career and now’s he back with the self-penned Adventureland, another coming-of-age comedy. It’s got a similar cast, but it’s a very different movie; gentler and less punchline-oriented.

It’s 1987, and James (Jesse Eisenberg from The Squid and the Whale) has just graduated from college to discover his parents can no longer afford to send him to Europe for the summer, nor pay for grad school after that. To raise money, he returns home to Pittsburgh and takes a job at Adventureland, a small-scale amusement park.

James is a smart and literary guy, but he’s also a virgin and that seems to be attributable to the fact that he’s kind of an idiot when it comes to women. He falls for co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart of Twilight fame), though their romance is complicated by both his ineptitude and the fact that she’s carrying on in secret with the allegedly cool—and married—maintenance man (Ryan Reynolds).

Adventureland is a sweet movie, with not much of a story but a nice rhythm and aesthetic to it. The soundtrack is great, with a score by Yo La Tengo and plenty of Lou Reed (who provides one of the movie’s best running jokes), not to mention lots of well-selected period songs. Adventureland itself is beautifully realized: it seems kind of scuzzy and lovely at the same time.

It’s also worth mentioning the cast, which also includes Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Martin Starr (the mighty Haverchuck from Freaks and Geeks) and Wendy Malick. Fine comic actors, but they all perform with restraint here as Mottola never goes in for the easy laughs. Adventureland probably won’t get the same big crowds as Superbad—it’s got less broad appeal, but it’s an immensely likeable and sweet coming-of-age story and kind of great in its own small way.

ADVENTURELAND OPENS THIS FRIDAY,
APRIL 3