RSS

 

A sweet, sharp coming-of-age romance, "Adventureland" is a little warmer, a little funnier and a lot more truthful than the last 20 or 30 of its ilk. Especially its Hollywood ilk.

You know the kind: R-rated comedies about socially maladroit horndogs on the brink of adulthood, partying, hooking up, throwing up, setting their sights on the rest of their lives.

 

All this happens in "Adventureland" -- set in 1987, mostly within the confines of a Pittsburgh amusement park -- yet the characters, female as well as male, interact like real people, not stereotyped castoffs from John Hughes' '80s catalog.

This third feature from writer-director Greg Mottola is reminiscent of Barry Levinson's "Diner" or Paul Mazursky's "Next Stop, Greenwich Village" or, more recently, Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused," personal projects (personal enough, at least, to make them ring true) made by astute populist entertainers.

It's my favorite American movie so far this year.

Miramax Films financed "Adventureland" and premiered it at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The studio is marketing it as another "Superbad," thereby guaranteeing a whole lot of confused teenagers who won't be getting the raunch they're promised, as well as guaranteeing a tough sell with an older crowd, the people with the most direct relationship to the film's setting, time frame and sensibility.

The movie's low-key appeal doesn't have a lot to do with "Superbad," which was, in fact, good, and was Mottola's second feature. (His engaging debut, "The Daytrippers," preceded it by more than a decade.) I guess I can't blame Miramax for capitalizing on what it sees as a film's commercial hooks, but at least one of the posters makes "Adventureland" look like it stars Bill Hader's porn-star mustache.

In the real leading role, Jesse Eisenberg of "The Squid and the Whale" plays James, a highly verbal, sexually tentative 22-year-old college graduate whose major in Renaissance studies has put him in a terrific position if, as he says, "someone wants help restoring a fresco."

Despite the Reagan Revolution, everyone in "Adventureland" has serious, real-world money problems. When his upper-middle-class father (Jack Gilpin) suffers a setback at work, James must forgo the $900 earmarked as his European travel money. So he looks for work and ends up at Adventureland, where he's employed in one of the game booths. Over the summer, he enters, tentatively, the orbit of Em, played by Kristen Stewart of "Twilight."

This cool, wary figure represents the adventureland beyond Adventureland. Em's involved with the park's married maintenance man (Ryan Reynolds), an arrangement that has begun to corrode her self-image. To James, Em is the promise of a leap into adulthood.

Other characters are played more for laughs, such as the park's husband-and-wife management team (Hader and Kristen Wiig), but the reason I fell for "Adventureland" has everything to do with its central couple, along with James' friendship with Joel, a pipe-smoking literature fiend and fellow Adventureland slacker played by Martin Starr. At one point, Joel and another staffer find themselves fairly drunk and unexpectedly close. "I'm so surprised I'm making out with you!" says the girl. "Me too," replies Joel, insulted and pleased in equal measure. Mottola's script is full of similarly spot-on exchanges.

Your response to "Adventureland" may well have a lot to do with your feelings about any of the following: a fine and mellow musical score by Yo La Tengo; the choice of "Bastards of Young" by The Replacements as the title sequence tune; and Eisenberg's exquisitely self-effacing comic timing, similar to Michael Cera's but drier.

The film doesn't try to make James into a fount of nobility or a moral paragon; it's a little painful, by design, watching this nice, smart kid try to ingratiate himself with the cool crowd by being the provider of the weed.

But the way their love story develops, Eisenberg and Stewart play off each other like magic.

From an awkward, mistimed first kiss to a mega-happy happy ending, romantic but not candied, Mottola's trip down memory lane transcends every one of its familiar component parts.

I'm eager to see it again.

 

"Adventureland" Movie Review by Michael Phillips on Video

 

Receive Movie Reviews
Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

 

Adventureland MPAA rating: R (for language, drug use and sexual references).

Running time: 1:46.

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg (James Brennan); Kristen Stewart (Em Lewin); Martin Starr (Joel Schiffman); Ryan Reynolds (Mike Connell); Matt Bush (Tommy Frigo); Margerita Levieva (Lisa P); Bill Hader (Bobby); Kristen Wiig (Paulette).

Written and directed by Greg Mottola; produced by Ted Hope, Anne Carey and Sidney Kimmel. A Miramax Films release.

"Adventureland" Movie Trailer

 

Recent Movie Reviews - Films in Theaters

Hannah Montana the Movie

Miley Cyrus, 16, stars in a big-screen expansion of the Disney Channel TV series in which Ms. Cyrus splits herself in two, trying to be both down-home Miley Stewart from Tennessee and, in disguise, Hannah Montana, L.A. rock star adored by millions, with only a dirty-blond wig to conceal her identity.

 

Observe and Report

Seth Rogen is likely to get blamed for everything wrong with "Observe and Report," because he's overexposed at the moment and the film doesn't really work, even with its flashes of rude invention. But the fault lies with writer-director Jody Hill.

Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Based on novelist Michael Chabon's 1988 debut effort, this film is a coming-of-ager that nearly slaughters you with the relentlessness of its protagonist's voiceovers. Jon Foster plays the son of a mobster money launderer (Nick Nolte) who falls in with a willowy blonde (Sienna Miller) and her reckless lover (Peter Sarsgaard).

The Fast and the Furious

If you're in the mood for a lot of vroom, vroom, thump, thump, the fourth installment in the metal-twisting series that began with "The Fast and the Furious" (2001) should leave you satiated for a long time.

The return of Vin Diesel restores energy to the franchise, and director Justin Lin infuses the necessary full-throttle bits with a dynamic lyricism.

The plot isn't really important as long as you know there are plenty of extreme and extended demolition derbies -- countless cars gave their lives to make this movie possible.

Alien Trespass

There is a sweet sincerity to "Alien Trespass," a sometimes too-reverential homage to the sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s. It was a time when filmmakers had to create other worlds and other beings without the help of complex technology. While the film stays true to the era and the genre, it forgets that its mission is not merely to pay tribute, but to entertain.

Monsters vs. Aliens

DreamWorks' animated 3-D feature is blessed with a high-concept title and Seth Rogen's serenely dense line readings in the role of a genetically altered tomato gone wrong. This story of imprisoned monsters and rampaging aliens centers on a woman (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) who is creamed by a meteor that turns her into a giant.

The Haunting in Connecticut

There's not much wrong with the house in this movie that a little WD-40 couldn't cure. Everything creaks, including the dialogue. This so-so horror flick, supposedly based on a true story, bumps along from low-grade scare to scare, and it's not lousy, mainly because Virginia Madsen prevents it from being so.

I Love You, Man
Paul Rudd & Jason Segel in the Movie I Love You, Man

This minor but enjoyable entry in the boy-man comedy genre stars Paul Rudd as an L.A. real estate agent engaged to be married but short on straight-up male companionship in general and a best man for his wedding in particular. Along comes a sometime investment whiz (Jason Segel) living the life of a Venice Beach slacker.

Duplicity
Julia Roberts & Clive Owen in the Movie Duplicity

Last seen together in Closer, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play dueling corporate spies caught up in a cross / double-cross plot that starts coiling around itself like a snake. And, of course, there is time for a little romance between the two stars. "Duplicity" is pure artifice, without any moral reckoning or higher intentions. Mainly it is a classy excuse to hang out with Roberts and Owen and their wardrobes for a couple of hours.

 

 

Sunshine Cleaning
Amy Adams & Emily Blunt in the Movie Sunshine Cleaning

Amy Adams and Emily Blunt play sisters who start up an unlicensed crime-scene cleanup business. They're haunted by the suicide death of their mother; for them the biohazard removal biz is a way of processing their grief, and bringing to survivors the comfort they themselves seek. Certain narrative events are more about dramatic convenience than the mess of real life. But it helps to have actresses as vibrant as Adams and Blunt around. Director Christine Jeffs loosens the plotting as best she can, letting the interactions breathe.

Knowing
Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne & Chandler Canterbury in the Movie Knowing

Nicolas Cage plays a man privy to the details of upcoming disasters -- when, where and how many people will die. Until it jumps the tracks into self-righteousness, "Knowing" can be as unnerving as the best episodes of "The Twilight Zone." This slice of disaster porn dabbles in faith and doubt and has no patience for fence-sitters. And by the way, isn't Cage due to make a high-quality film one of these days?

The Great Buck Howard
John Malkovich & Colin Hanks in the Movie The Great Buck Howard

This affectionate but flawed comedy stars John Malkovich as a mentalist who once filled venues around the country. Now, Buck is on a sad slide to obscurity, though great effort is expended in making sure he will be the last to know. Into the strong wind of Buck's denial steps a law-school dropout (Colin Hanks) unsure of what to do with his life. Malkovich always works a lovely little sleight of hand with comedy, but what he needs here are supporting actors with a few more tricks up their sleeves.

Race to Witch Mountain
Dwayne Johnson & AnnaSophia Robb in the Movie Race to Witch Mountain

Benign yet assaultive PG mayhem -- it's a neat trick if you can pull it off. The Walt Disney Co., determined to remake every live-action feature in its canon, brings us a frenetic update of "Escape to Witch Mountain" (1975) in which Dwayne Johnson reunites with "The Game Plan" director Andy Fickman. The premise -- alien kids with special powers try to get back home -- echoes the original, but this hopped-up remake lays on the "X-Files" paranoia. The charismatic Johnson helps make it work.

The Last House on the Left
Sara Paxton & Martha MacIsaac in the Movie The Last House on the Left

Wes Craven's 1972 original was pure unstable trash. Now comes the blunt, well-acted remake, which Craven co-produced. Part horror flick, part revenge thriller, it proceeds with a grim sense of purpose, its actors portraying characters approximating real people and plausible behavior, amid plausible tension, borne of a terrible situation. Is it pointless? It is, actually. Does that kill it? No, actually. I wouldn't call it a good time, but I would call it an unexpectedly good genre film.

Crossing Over
Harrison Ford, Jim Sturgess & Ray Liotta in the Movie Crossing Over

Crisscrossing Southern California and covering numerous green-card tales of woe, The movie Crossing Over establishes so many intersecting lines of fate and circumstance that halfway through you wonder: Is this film going to include every single Angeleno who wasn't in "Crash"? The movie does not lack for heart, or honest concern for the plight of so many newcomers to America, legal or illegal. What it lacks is moment-to-moment credibility.

Miss March
Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore & Raquel Alessi in the Movie Miss March

A high school student (Zach Cregger) gets drunk at his prom, falls down a flight of stairs and lands in a coma, just as he was about to lose his virginity to his girlfriend (Raquel Alessi). When he wakes up four years later, he discovers his girlfriend has moved on -- to the pages of Playboy -- so he and his lewd best friend (Trevor Moore) take a road trip to the Playboy Mansion. The funniest thing about this monumentally stupid anti-comedy is that the producers persuaded Playboy to sign off on the thing.

Watchmen Movie Review

A group of forcibly retired masked crimefighters are uneasily reunited to save the world, and to save themselves from the unknown predator targeting them for extinction. Director Zack Snyder's bloated screen adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel is marked by slavish fidelity to the source material.

But the brutality is pretty numbing in "Watchmen."

Two Lovers Movie Review

Joaquin Phoenix plays Leonard who's in his 30s but living with his parents after a broken engagement, a bout of depression and a suicide attempt. His parents push him toward a nice Jewish girl (Vinessa Shaw), but he's drawn to a bubbly blond neighbor (Gwyneth Paltrow). The film is a small, delicate concoction of moods and moments, focused squarely on the talented Phoenix.

Jonas Brothers: 3D Concert Experience

Directed by Bruce Hendricks, who also fashioned the recent Miley Cyrus 3-D concert movie, this ostensible concert documentary is awkwardly stitched together from candy-gloss arena concert footage and somewhat grimier-looking backstage/limo/hotel room moments. The Brothers come across more machine-tooled than homespun. Their grasps for authenticity -- they do write their own songs and play their instruments -- just feel like another layer of artifice, and their songs bleed together, one bouncing clap-along chorus to the next.

Fired Up
Nicholas D'Agosto & Eric Christian Olsen

Two teen hotshots (Nicholas D'Agosto, Eric Christian Olsen) duck football camp in order to join an overwhelmingly female cheerleading squad. "Fired Up" is "Wedding Crashers" with high school seniors and bras and panties, as opposed to Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson and copious toplessness. Now and then, though, somebody says something funny, and there are some effective micro-moments, but little here works for a full moment.

The International
Clive Owen & Naomi Watts

Director Tom Tykwer's thriller is all over the place, both geographically and in terms of audience satisfaction.

Clive Owen plays an Interpol agent working with his ally in the New York DA's office (Naomi Watts) to bust a nefarious bank. Some of the set pieces are terrific, particularly the opening scene in Berlin and a shootout at the Guggenheim Museum, but getting in and out of such sequences is not the film's strong suit. Tykwer ("Run Lola Run") has a way with complex cinematic mayhem, but "International" is tripped up by klutzy, formulaic dialogue.

Confessions of a Shopaholic (1-1/2 Stars)
Isla Fisher & Hugh Dancy in the Movie Confessions of a Shopaholic

This thin, largely unfunny comedy marries lazy filmmaking with bad timing -- a recession probably isn't the right time for a movie about a woman whose passion is shopping for high-end clothes. Star Isla Fisher ("Wedding Crashers") is charming enough, but this material is so predictable and leaden that she has no prayer of keeping it afloat.

Friday the 13th (1-1/2 Stars)
Clive Jared Padalecki & Danielle Panabaker in the Movie Friday the 13th

Having endured a series of increasingly bizarre sequels, machete-wielding Jason Voorhees hits the reset button and starts anew -- Mickey Rourke-esque, if you will. This new "Friday the 13th," savvier and snappier than the 1980 original, is a needed return to simplicity: A diverse group of teens visits Camp Crystal Lake, where they engage in naughty behavior before being impaled. After years of "Hostel"-style torture, this straightforward arrow-through-the-eye-socket approach is almost refreshing.

The Class Movie Review
Michael Phillips reviews the Movie The Class

This fantastic film takes place in a working-class, multiethnic Parisian middle school, where an unruly world of conflict, frustration and joy comes to life. Francois Begaudeau plays a version of himself; he taught in a Paris middle school and wrote a book about it, and "The Class" distills that book into a year in the life of a teacher and his combative, highly stimulating students. A documentary approach is the key to the film's success, with real students playing characters, some based on themselves, some not. In French, with English subtitles.

Coraline Movie Review
Michael Phillips reviews the Movie Coraline

An intelligent preteen (Dakota Fanning) discovers a tiny door in the wall of her immense home that leads to a parallel universe offering a brighter, more inviting version of the same house, and her same parents. "Coraline" may not be for all tastes, and it's certainly not for all kids, given its macabre premise. But Henry Selick's film advances the stop-motion animation genre through that most heartening of attributes: quality. It pulls audiences into a meticulously detailed universe, familiar in many respects, menacing in others.

Fanboys Movie Review
Michael Phillips reviews the Movie Fanboys

This comedy follows a quintet of Star Wars fanatics on a 1998 journey from Ohio to their Holy Grail: George Lucas Skywalker Ranch in California, where they hope to bust into the joint and sneak a look at a work print of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. It all should have been wilder and funnier. For a comedy of fanboy insanity to fly, it has to be a little less beholden to the pop-culture phenoms it is satirizing, however affectionately.

He's Just Not That Into You Movie Review
Michael Phillips reviews the Movie He's Just Not That Into You

The film adaptation of Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo's 2004 relationship-advice book is a sprawling, many-threaded series of stories, most of which contradict the book's advice about moving on when facing a lack of commitment. Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore and Ben Affleck head the cast of this romantic comedy, which has some fun with its bubble-gum tone until a rash of ridiculous happy endings takes all the bite out of the premise

Pink Panther 2 Movie Review & Trailer
Michael Phillips reviews the Movie Pink Panther 2

This disposable Pink Panther sequel follows the 2006 remake and once again features Steve Martin as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. The cast (which also includes Emily Mortimer, Andy Garcia, John Cleese and Lily Tomlin) sprints way out ahead of the material. Most of it would work twice as well if the filmmakers had eased up and allowed the performers to interact -- to do their thing in medium shot, without a lot of pushy close-ups and overemphasis, so that their bodies might inform what their faces are up to.

Push Movie Review
Michael Phillips reviews the Movie Push

Psychic experiments started by the Nazis are being continued by the U.S. government, and so a telekinetic (Chris Evans) and a clairvoyant (Dakota Fanning) must recover a powerful experimental drug in the jam-packed streets of Hong Kong before a government agent (Djimon Hounsou) gets his hands on it. Director Paul McGuigan ("Lucky Number Slevin") has never been keen on plot logic, and that might be fine if his inscrutable film offered anything other than lush images of Hong Kong

Taken Movie Review
Michael Phillips reviews the Movie Taken

Liam Neeson plays a former CIA spook whose clandestine career bled into his home and led to a divorce. After traffickers kidnap his daughter in Europe, our hero has 96 hours to save her, and he wastes no time karate-chopping his way through every mime and baguette peddler in France.

The movie overheats quickly, but Neeson and the filmmakers manage to make the Charles Bronson-style simplicity work.

New in Town Movie Review

Renee Zellweger plays a hotshot Miami businesswoman whose firm assigns her to oversee a workforce reduction at a food-processing plant in New Ulm, Minn. Easygoing Harry Connick Jr. plays the union rep.

The Uninvited Movie Review
Michael Phillips reviews the Movie The Uninvited

After a stay in a psychiatric clinic, teenager Anna (Emily Browning) returns home, with her father (David Strathairn) now engaged to the caregiver (Elizabeth Banks) who oversaw Anna's invalid mother in her last days, before a fatal fire. Anna attempted suicide after the tragedy, and now she's plagued by visions, one of which appears to be her late mother, crying out for revenge.

Waltz With Bashir Movie Review & Trailer
Academy Award Oscar Nomination for Best Foreign Film

An extraordinary achievement and a true visual feast, Ari Folman's animated "Waltz With Bashir" is a detective story as well as an moral inquiry into the specific horrors of one war (the 1982 Lebanon War), and one man's buried memories of it.

Outlander Movie Review & Trailer
Michael Phillips reviews the Movie Outlander

Viking warriors and a stoic intergalactic traveler (Jim Caviezel) join forces in the eighth century to combat an enormous beetle with whiplash stingers.

 

"Slumdog Millionaire" Leads the Way
81st Academy Award Oscar Winners 2009

In much the same manner that the film captured the hearts of movie-goers, "Slumdog Millionaire" captured the hearts and votes of the Academy garnering 8 Oscars in total, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Sean Penn won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his role as Harvey Milk in the movie "Milk," while Kate Winslett won her first Oscar in the Best Actress category for he role as Hanna Schmitz in "The Reader."

Heath Ledger won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," posthumously. Ledger died on January 22, 2008 after an accidental drug overdose. Penelope Cruz won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Elena Maria in "Vicky Christina Barcelona."

"WALL-E" took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature:

This year's top Academy Awards nominated film, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with 13 Oscar nominations, won 3 Oscars (Achievement in Art Direction, Makeup & Visual Effects).