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Entry #669529, added on 09-28-09 @ 12:45 pm EDT.
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Title:
It's just my life
Adventureland, 2009, Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. Directed and written by Greg Mottola. Rated R for drug use, profanity.
*******
This is one of those movies that moves right into my heart and curls up for a long stay. Set in 1987, which is probably a good part of the reason why I love it so, Adventureland is a story that talks about young people without making fun of them or idolizing them. Its hero, James Brennan (Eisenberg), has just graduated from Oberlin with a degree in Comparative Literature and Renaissance Studies, which doesn't help him get a summer job when his plans to tour Europe fall through. He ends up taking a job at the local amusement park in Pittsburgh, Adventureland, a family-oriented place which is not of particularly high quality. There he meets Em (Stewart), an intelligent and beautiful girl who seems to like him, but has family and relationship issues. The rest of the movie follows their relationship over the summer and is a typical coming-of-age story. What isn't typical are the characters.
James is a young man who's a virgin, but actually wants to fall in love with a girl before he has sex with her. Not that he doesn't have a sex drive; he's quite attracted to both Em and the gorgeously sexy Lisa P., who works in rides. But he's thoughtful, considerate and unaggressive, all of which make him unusual in today's typical comedy. His friend Joel is also intelligent, with a cynical wit which makes him one of the funniest characters in the film; but he realizes his own limitations with girls:
"I'm not a good-looking guy, and I'm poor. Girls aren't going to go near me when there's all these...yuppies around."
Every character in this film is outstanding in a different way. James' "best friend", Frigo, routinely punches James in the groin when leaving him and is a complete and total jerk. Connell, the maintenance guy who looks a lot like James Dean and who has a way with young women, is completely manipulative and phony, yet cares about his mother and comes away as worthy of our pity. Lisa P., at first the typical sexy stupid easy lay, turns out to be not as easy as we think, and is surprisingly nice. Bobby and Paulette, who run the park, are a scream as people who cut every corner to do everything they can to avoid having to give out "a giant-ass panda"; but Bobby comes through in a clinch for James when a customer is chasing him with murder on his mind. James and Em's parents, though in small roles and not terribly sympathetic, manage to stand out and act like real people instead of stereotypes for the most part. Stewart as Em is particularly brilliant; she's vulnerable, likeable, sarcastic and confused, but in the end, although she makes some bad choices, her love for James wins out. Stewart should get out of the Twilight series as fast as she can and stick to roles like this. She probably won't, which is a pity.
This is a comedy without big bellylaughs, but it has a sharp, quiet wit and love for its characters which really make it special. The dialogue is a scream. I long to quote you lines of it, but I don't want to spoil them for you. Just trust me when I say people with a brain will love it.
I loved the Eighties setting, of course, but my teenage daughter loved the film just as much because it's true to the way young people act and think. Yes, there are jokes about sex and even a few about bodily functions, and way too much marijuana use for my taste. Still, for the most part, the film's tasteful and achingly sweet. And the music is well-chosen, and incredible, of course. Any film opening with "Bastards of Young" and going on to Husker Du, Lou Reed and the Velvets, Nick Lowe, Expose, Wang Chung, Falco and INXS has to be brilliant.
I worked at Six Flags over Mid-America in high school, the summer of '79. I worked in Games, just like James and Em. I announced the same horse race game that James does his best to "take it up to 10" when he's announcing the winner. We would stand around and talk to each other and drink free Dr. Peppers every hour to keep us from getting dehydrated and play the jukebox and mime playing guitar and singing to "Fire Lake" and "Don't Bring Me Down" and "You May Be Right". Ah, the music. I loved that summer. The pay sucked and the costumes were ridiculous, but at least the games weren't rigged. And sometimes people even won those giant-ass pandas.
A highly recommended film if you're young, or were once young, or ever worked in an amusement park.
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© Copyright 2009 Lynn McKenzie (UN: lynnmckenzie at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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