57) Adventureland

Adventureland (2009)

Director: Greg Mottola

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Margarita Levieva, Wendy Malick

Adventureland is a film which seemed to fly under a lot of people's radars when it came out last year. But it did get some quite positive reviews from a number of sources I respect so I was intrigued by it. I was in JB Hifi to try and find Kate a copy of Sense and Sensibility (which comes with a talking keyring! Exactly which marketing genius thought there was any sort of overlap between the Jane Austen appreciators demographic and the novelty keyring enjoyers demographic I don't know) and, God bless 'em, they were having a 20% off all DVDs stocktake sale, so spotting it for under $10 I was willing to give it a shot.

In 1987, James Brennan (Michael Cera... oh sorry, I mean Jesse Eisenberg) is all set to head to Europe for the summer to broaden his horizons before returning to commence study at Ivy League school Columbia. However a change in his parents' financial situation means the holiday has to go on hold and if he wants to go to Columbia he's going to have to get himself a summer job. With his major in comparative literature not opening many doors, his only option is a job manning the games at the local amusement park, Adventureland. He quickly buddies up with the equally brainy but slightly more socially retarded Joel (Starr). He also finds he has a surprising connection with the witty and mysterious Em (Stewart). Their relationship blossoms quickly, but confused by Em's mixed messages, the result of a fair bit of baggage, James's eye starts to wander to the flirty temptress Lisa P (Levieva).

When you see 'from the director of Superbad' you expect the usual Judd Apatow crew to be present. So when you glance down the cast list and there's no Seth Rogen, no Jonah Hill, no Paul Rudd, no Jason Segal you can be forgiven for thinking this one might be a bit B grade. This lack of 'names' probably explains why this film flew under so many people's radars. But this is a different kind of movie to Superbad. If you go into it expecting Superbad 2 you are going to be disappointed. Adventureland doesn't have the same crass, frat boy style humour which oozed out of Superbad. It is still funny, if not seeking to be laugh-a-minute, but has a lot more depth. Our heroes here are smart, moody weirdos rather than juvenile man-boys (I don't want to sound like I'm being overly harsh on Apatow's other stuff, I enjoy it, just stressing this is something different).

While the cast doesn't have the names of some of the other Apatow group comedies, the cast is still very good. I first came across Jesse Eisenberg in the legitimately brilliant Zombieland. Let's be honest, he may as well be Michael Cera (from Arrested Development and Superbad), and it will be interesting to see if there is enough space for both of them, but he's good at what he does and was well cast as James. Having not seen any Twilight I have no baggage when it comes to Kristen Stewart and actually quite enjoyed her performance in this film. She fit the bill perfectly as an emotionally scarred adolescent, and made me think that her upcoming performance as Joan Jett in The Runaways might be worth a look. Ryan Reynolds is quite good as a Fonzie type figure, all the kids think he's the coolest but he is actually tragically pitiful (sorry Fonzie admirers). The rest of the cast is made up of comedic character actors. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are fantastic as the husband and wife managers of Adventureland, effectively doing what Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig always do.

The film is based on writer and director Greg Mottola's own adolescent experience working at Adventureland. For that reason the film is set in 1987, obviously because that is the era he remembers it from. But I had great trouble remembering that this film was not set in the present day. There is very little there to keep the film entrenched in the late 1980s. Maybe the conspicuous lack of mobile phones. The fact that carnivals don't really seem to have advanced much in the last 20 years means that they all look like they're from the 1980s, but your mind just goes "That's because they're at a carnival." The one thing which seems to try and keep you in the 1980s is the music, but even then you'll still find moody, intellectuals in their early twenties who listen to Lou Reed and I'm pretty sure if you hang around any carnival or fair Falco's Rock Me Amadeus will come over the speakers sooner or later.

Adventureland is not groundbreaking in any sense of the word, but it is pretty good, and the fact that it didn't go gangbusters at the cinemas and doesn't have a huge reputation makes it a bit of a hidden treasure.