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Adventureland: Nostalgic Themepark Hijinks
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| Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart star in Greg Mottola’s comedy “Adventureland.” (Abbot Genser/Courtesy of Miramax Films) |
Rating: * *
By Jonathan L. Fischer, For The Bulletin
Surely there’s something to admire in a film that cracks wise about Plato and Gogol and a moment later sees one character assault another in the genitals. Almost all brows of humor can be found in “Adventureland,” director Greg Mottola’s nostalgic follow-up to the very successful teen comedy “Superbad,” but just about every gag not spoiled in the trailer lands like a tattered softball hitting a hay-stuffed dummy. Which is to say: with a thud.
Those walking into “Adventureland” expecting zaniness — what else should a post-teenage yarn set in a rusting amusement park aspire to? — will be disappointed to sit through something far mushier. The setting is 1987, the place is the suburbs of Pittsburgh and the soundtrack — full of hipster staples like The Replacements and The Velvet Underground — is pleasant but reeks of self-indulgence. I imagine Mr. Mottola, who based the film on one of his own summers, has been soundtracking this movie in his head for the past 20 years.
It stars Jesse Eisenberg (“The Squid And The Whale”) as James, who’s just graduated from college, and whose plans to tour Europe are derailed after his parents (Jack Gilpin and Wendie Malick) see the “upper” fall off of their middle-class status. And so he goes to work at Adventureland, a stand-in for Kennywood, the Pittsburgh amusement park where the movie was filmed.
There we meet a large ensemble, including the park’s eccentric owners (Bill Hader and Kirsten Wiig), who suggest that James is better-suited to run a game than a ride (“you’re very gamey,” says Ms. Wiig). There’s also Frigo (Matt Bush), James’ Pucklike childhood buddy who operates from the “Napoleon Dynamite” playbook; Joel (the always-great Martin Starr), an intellectual and a cynic of limited financial means, who clumsily flirts with girls by quoting dead Russian writers; and laid-back but tortured Em, played by Kristen Stewart, whom audiences will know from “Twilight,” and who seems to have brought some of that vampire epic’s dreariness with her. A lot of that has to do with the park’s mechanic Connell (Ryan Reynolds, the biggest star here), with whom she is having a joyless affair. He says he once jammed with Lou Reed, and they played, among other songs, “Set A Light On Love.” James knows the song is actually named “Satellite Of Love.”
James frequently serves as the butt of jokes, but we soon realize that the character, surely a stand-in for Mr. Mottola, eventually will get his cosmic redemption (read: the girl). The movie posits that because James is smart and authentic and has good taste in music, he deserves to end up with Em, to whom he is mutually attracted.
Fine, but must this be at the expense of comedy?
With “Superbad,” writers Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg balanced a unique comedic alchemy — crude, madcap and awkward all at once — with some fairly compelling insights into the fraternity of teenage males. I sense that Mr. Mottola is more interested in reliving and revising one of his more formative summers — and occasionally punctuating it with some obvious jokes (sexual humiliation, social discomfort) and a few inspired ones (the park is its own universe with its own bizarre rules).
The film follows James through a summer’s worth of work and parties, which often feels like an afterthought to the slobbering close-ups of needles landing on records. Surely, Mr. Mottola isn’t the first to think about choreographing a make-out scene to The Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes.” That doesn’t make it a good idea.
Jonathan L. Fischer can be reached at jfischer@thebulletin.us
Those walking into “Adventureland” expecting zaniness — what else should a post-teenage yarn set in a rusting amusement park aspire to? — will be disappointed to sit through something far mushier. The setting is 1987, the place is the suburbs of Pittsburgh and the soundtrack — full of hipster staples like The Replacements and The Velvet Underground — is pleasant but reeks of self-indulgence. I imagine Mr. Mottola, who based the film on one of his own summers, has been soundtracking this movie in his head for the past 20 years.
It stars Jesse Eisenberg (“The Squid And The Whale”) as James, who’s just graduated from college, and whose plans to tour Europe are derailed after his parents (Jack Gilpin and Wendie Malick) see the “upper” fall off of their middle-class status. And so he goes to work at Adventureland, a stand-in for Kennywood, the Pittsburgh amusement park where the movie was filmed.
There we meet a large ensemble, including the park’s eccentric owners (Bill Hader and Kirsten Wiig), who suggest that James is better-suited to run a game than a ride (“you’re very gamey,” says Ms. Wiig). There’s also Frigo (Matt Bush), James’ Pucklike childhood buddy who operates from the “Napoleon Dynamite” playbook; Joel (the always-great Martin Starr), an intellectual and a cynic of limited financial means, who clumsily flirts with girls by quoting dead Russian writers; and laid-back but tortured Em, played by Kristen Stewart, whom audiences will know from “Twilight,” and who seems to have brought some of that vampire epic’s dreariness with her. A lot of that has to do with the park’s mechanic Connell (Ryan Reynolds, the biggest star here), with whom she is having a joyless affair. He says he once jammed with Lou Reed, and they played, among other songs, “Set A Light On Love.” James knows the song is actually named “Satellite Of Love.”
James frequently serves as the butt of jokes, but we soon realize that the character, surely a stand-in for Mr. Mottola, eventually will get his cosmic redemption (read: the girl). The movie posits that because James is smart and authentic and has good taste in music, he deserves to end up with Em, to whom he is mutually attracted.
Fine, but must this be at the expense of comedy?
With “Superbad,” writers Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg balanced a unique comedic alchemy — crude, madcap and awkward all at once — with some fairly compelling insights into the fraternity of teenage males. I sense that Mr. Mottola is more interested in reliving and revising one of his more formative summers — and occasionally punctuating it with some obvious jokes (sexual humiliation, social discomfort) and a few inspired ones (the park is its own universe with its own bizarre rules).
The film follows James through a summer’s worth of work and parties, which often feels like an afterthought to the slobbering close-ups of needles landing on records. Surely, Mr. Mottola isn’t the first to think about choreographing a make-out scene to The Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes.” That doesn’t make it a good idea.
Jonathan L. Fischer can be reached at jfischer@thebulletin.us
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