Adventureland is a 2009 comedy about a college grad who takes a summer job at theme park called Adventureland. Jesse Eisenberg stars as James Brennan, who had dreams about going to Europe for the summer and going to Columbia University in the fall, but things fall through and he ends up taking a shitty seasonal job at the local amusement park. He’s the new guy and Joel (Martin Starr) takes him under his wing and introduces him to his coworkers and shows him the ropes. He meets a bunch of new people and starts crushing on a girl named Em (Kristen Stewart). They start hanging out, they share a kiss, but things are complicated because she’s having an ongoing affair with another coworker named Connell. Connell (Ryan Reynolds) is the park technician and an amateur musician, and he pretends to be cooler than he is. James is the only one who sees through his charade, but he never calls him out for his bullshit.
It’s kind of like a high school comedy, except that instead of being about a high school student, it’s about a college graduate trying to lose his virginity and finding true love in the process. Of course nothing is that simple and hilarity ensues. And no matter how outrageous it gets at times, it’s still honest. It was written and directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad), You can tell it was a personal project for him. It’s period piece set in 1987, around the time when Mottola would be the same age as his characters. It kind of reminds me of Waiting… It’s about a bunch of crazy people working at a crazy place, and Ryan Reynolds plays a cocky guy with insecure tendencies in both. It’s quirky but sincere, and it’s smarter than it pretends to be.
Critically Rated at 14/17
Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young
criticallyrated 