Photo published in Kodakery, A Magazine for Amateur Photographers, November, 1914
I wrote last week about I Love You, Man and "Apatow-effect" comedy. Adventureland, the new comedy by Greg Mottola, the director of Superbad, is definitely part of this same scene. This is the first movie that Mottola has written as well as directed, and what surprised me most was Mottola's interest in the genre of fantasy.
The best fantasy and science fiction is subtle. Adventureland, for instance, takes place in the year 1987 in a parallel universe quite similar to ours, but different in some jarring ways. For instance, in the world of Adventureland, a guy can get some action by telling girls that he jammed with Lou Reed. In our universe, or course, 99 out of 100 girls told this will reply that they’ve never heard of Lou Reed and are not interested in a long, awkward explanation of how he used to be kinda famous. This is true of any time period, by the way, not just 1987 or 2009. The other 1 girl out of 100 is totally insane and you'll probably get some action with her, and her response will be the same regardless of time period. Other anomalies in the universe of Adventureland include college kids in 1987 having 70s-era David Bowie posters all over their walls, people at parties randomly pulling out the ultra-rare Radio City LP by Big Star to put on the stereo, and hot girls owning and wearing Husker Du t-shirts.
What I'm trying to say is that this movie presents a version of 1987 that only exists in the minds of guys like Greg Mottola (and me, admittedly), where most people had a non-mainstream taste in music. That's hardly what the movie is actually about, but it was a big distraction for me watching Adventureland. The movie is actually about a group of college-age kids who go home to Pittsburgh in the summer and can't find decent jobs. They end up working at Adventureland, a crappy theme park run by a well-meaning but demented couple. James (Jesse Eisenberg) has just graduated from college and is looking at grad school in the fall. Em (Kristen Stewart) is going to NYU. Joel (Martin Starr) is studying Russian Literature, and Mike Connell (Ryan Reynolds) is a slightly older burn-out who married early and works as the park mechanic.
The relationships of these four central characters build in a nice, organic way that doesn't pander, letting the audience connect some of the dots themselves. Eisenberg is the right choice for the lead role, even if he is the Poor Man's Michael Cera, because he has something that Cera doesn't have. His line delivery is all sub-Cera, but his look is more awkward and almost-adult, making him perfect for the grad-school-bound man-child he's playing. Kristen Steward does nothing for me, though - is she supposed to look and act THAT stoned all the time? Is she always like that? If so, how do they explain that in Twilight, a movie entirely devoid of marijuana-walnut cookies? On the other hand, Martin Starr (Bill from Freaks and Geeks, finally getting another good role) is one of my favorite things about this movie, and his mix of frustration and resignation about being ugly and poor is arguably more interesting than the film's main plot.
Mottola's directing is not particularly interesting - not surprisingly, he is more focused on letting his excellent script shine. The cast delivers some laughs and some emotional heft without swinging too far in either direction, and the ending might pull off a coup by hitting the spot for people who like big sappy endings as well as people who hate them. The score is too heavy on '80s college rock, and that took me out of the movie a little, but the ambient pieces by Yo La Tengo filled in the gaps nicely. More YLT instrumentals and less "Bastards of Young" on the soundtrack would have helped a little, in fact. Anyway, I'm glad I got to see this after missing it at Sundance, where we decided to see 500 Days of Summer instead. In retrospect, what were we thinking?
"The Race Is On Again" by Yo La Tengo
0 comments:
Post a Comment