Adventureland

Review by Sean Lynch

What do you do when you need to follow up a blockbuster hit like Superbad, but can't afford the big name stars which your movie was responsible for MAKING big stars in the first place?

Simple - pull the old Clueless TV series "We can't afford Alicia Silverstone, so we will just get someone who looks and acts exactly the same as her" trick.

Well played Greg Mottola, well played.

Welcome to Adventureland folks, a place where the worst job imaginable turns into the summer that changes everything - and a movie whose marketing suggests it might be "another bawdy sex comedy", but proves to be so much more.

Greg Mottola's emotionally grounded dramedy, Adventureland, follows recent college graduate James Brennan (the aforementioned "Michael Cera Version 2.0", Jesse Eisenberg).

James previously had big plans to spend the summer on a life altering trek through Europe that would initiate him into real adult life (we've all been there... mentally, at least).

But when his family suffers an economic downturn in the middle of the Reagan-led 1980s, James' only summer trip is straight to a minimum wage job manning a game booth at the rundown Adventureland amusement park.

Yet all isn't what it seems - for behind the cotton candy, the repeated disco songs and the bogan customers - there is a whole other world of misfit friends, life lessons and after work encounters with the emotionally damaged Em Lewin (Twilight's Kristen Stewart) that awaits.

While the flick gets off to a slow start (unsure of whether it's trying to be the next big mainstream"gross out comedy" or understated weird-fest of Napoleon Dynamite) Mottola quickly settles into a strong rhythm which results in something, tonally, along the lines of Juno meets a youthful About Schmidt.

While the laughs don't jump out at you like they did in Superbad, there is a lot more under the surface of Adventureland to keep the audience glued to the screen.

Mottola's script captures the very essence of what it's like to be on the verge of adulthood - the discovery of friendships, young love, that numbing and stinging sense of betrayal, the search for purpose - without ever falling victim to the sorts of cliches or pantomime that plague "coming of age" comedies.

The simple fact is, these characters are wonderfully crafted - the young ensemble cast are flawless (in particular Stewart, who seems to have opted to avoid the "I'm constipated while saying my lines" style she displayed in Twilight and In The Land Of Women).

Even Ryan Reynolds' usual "Hey, is my face moving sarcastically enough to resemble Jim Carrey yet?" mode is dutifully subdued, and the film is stronger for it, with Reynolds delivering one of his most grounded and interesting roles to date.

Extra points must be awarded to SNL's Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig who, as always, deliver some comedic standout, scene stealing moments.

Adventureland is well worth hunting down and checking out before it disappears from cinema screens (rather quickly, one would assume, considering the complete lack of promotion and advertising it's received), as it is one of the most well rounded mid-twenties tales to hit screens in 2009.

4 out of 5

Adventureland
Australian release: 28th May, 2009
Official Site: Adventureland
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Starr, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig
Director: Greg Mottola