The following is one more review of a film that will end up somewhere on my favorites of 2009 list, but it will definitely be there.
It was originally written April 9, 2009
"ADVENTURELAND"
Written and Directed by Greg Mottola
**** (4 stars)
"Out of college, money spent
See no future, pay no rent
All the money's gone, nowhere to go
Any jobber, got the sack
Monday morning, turning back
Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go
But oh, that magic feeling...Nowhere to go..."
-The Beatles
"You Never Give Me Your Money"
In 1991, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I successfully received Bachelors of Arts degrees in English and Communication Arts. I had fallen in love with my then-girlfriend/now-wife and we had both decided to move in together, much to the rage filled incredulity of my parents--a decision that led to my parents and I being somewhat estranged for several years. I had no idea of what I wanted to do with myself but I knew what I didn't want to do. I didn't have an interest in Grad School. As far as I was concerned, I wouldn't rule anything out but the school experience had met a most welcome conclusion for me. I certainly didn't want to return to Chicago, live under my parent's roof and seemingly forever be indebted to their expectations, hopes and goals which would certainly clash with my own still-forming desires. I was confident in my decision, but quite terrified as the nagging voice of doubt questioned my choices. Hollister and I fought the very first night we lived together in a tiny shoe box shaped room in the apartment she shared with her understandably resentful roommates.
On the Monday after my graduation weekend, I grabbed my bike and Walkman and started out for work at my now somewhat contraband--as I was no longer a student-- job at the university's Memorial Library. I rode my bike, dodging the traffic while crossing the large-ish West Washington avenue, to glide down State Street and meet my house of employment which rests on glorious Library Mall. I was listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' just released "Learning To Fly" from the "Into The Great Wide Open" album and for some reason, the stars seemed aligned in the singular moment even with so much uncertainty brushing my face like the cool morning breeze. The summer continued onwards as Hollister and I each took our individual and joint baby steps into our adulthoods. We saw movies. We didn't have a car then so we learned to navigate the bus system of Madison Metro. We went to house parties. We loved, fought, and loved and fought again.
And then, I took my first major step. In late July or early August of that summer, and in addition to Holli and I getting our first apartment, I obtained what I consider to be my first REAL post-college job. I became a "Sales Associate" at the University Book Store, located directly across from Memorial Library on Library Mall. This establishment was home to all manner of textbooks, school and art supplies and clothing adorned with University Of Wisconsin iconography. I worked in a department called "General Books," which was essentially a standard mainstream bookstore on the building's second level. I worked at the store for four years and over time, I truly hated it. The customers were not the issue in the least--although there were some that wanted to make me shake some throats. And I had made some good friends as we toiled through our days with an increasing brutal sense of sarcastic detachment that I feel was just a shield against a larger problem. It was a combination of many factors in that particular environment that created a sense of disilusion in my post-college life. That I had followed all of the rules, emerged through a great collegiate experience that deeply broadened my mind and spirit, and I was rewarded by essentially returning to a new approximation of high school where "Paper or Plastic?" and answering the eternal question of the store's bathroom location ruled my days. The world owed me nothing and realizing the harsh truth within the cliche, I was jaded at best and shaken to my core at worst.
I decided to open with that tale from my past because I have returned home from seeing "Adventureland," an outstanding film that perfectly captured the mash-up of excitement and ennui of that age and time of life. Written and directed by Greg Mottola, who previously directed the uproarious "Superbad" (2007) for producer Judd Apatow, I was completely taken with the 1987-set story of James (played by Jesse Eisenberg previously from "The Squid and the Whale"), a college graduate with a degree in Comparative Literature (who also admittedly reads poetry for pleasure), anxious to spend his summer backpacking across Europe to then return in the fall for Grad School in New York with a focus in Journalism. Yet, his plans are derailed when his father's employment has been downsized. Without as much money avaliable in the family finances, and James not even being qualified to work as manual labor, he is forced to obtain summer employment at Adventureland, a dilapidated theme park run by Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig and populated by an assortment of over-educated, disaffected, disillusioned and perpetually stoned young people. James is quickly befriended by Joel (the great Martin Starr from "Freaks and Geeks") a Russian Literature major, filled with ironic quips, who also habitually smokes a pipe and pines for another employee. James also strikes up friendships with Lisa P., the park's resident bombshell; Connell (Ryan Reynolds), the park mechanic, musician and married man who is having a clandestine affair with Em (Kristin Stewart), an intense and deeply troubled young woman he falls in love with.
The film is less about a plot and more of a series of perceptive vignettes that detail James' transformative summer. From intellectually stagnated days at the park, endlessly and maddingly set to "Rock Me Amadeus," to a stream of house parties loaded with alcohol and weed to dull and escape their collective frustrations, to tales of romantic uplift and woe, "Adventureland" not only brilliantly captures a time and a place, it evokes an elegiac spirit seen before in films such as George Lucas' "American Graffiti" (1973) and Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" (1993).
While this film is definitely a comedy, I urge you to not expect the raucous stylings of "Superbad." This is a decidedly quieter presentation--one that conjures the hazy time of your life when extroverted party anthems shift to introspective acoustic ballads. The post-college malaise of the early '20s depicted in "Adventureland" really belongs in the company of a collection of films that arrived from the early to mid '90s that effectively articulated emotions and simple truths about a period of time in a person's life that are sometimes difficult to pin down. "Sleep With Me" (1994), "Kicking and Screaming" (1995), "Bodies, Rest and Motion" (1993) and of course, Richard Linklater's gorgeous "Before Sunrise" (1995), and the supremely scorching "Clerks" (1994) from Writer/Director Kevin Smith all expressed that push-pull tension at growing up and becoming productive members of the larger society. The ghosts of high school/college hijinks desperately try to remain vivid while the first steps at either realizing or compromising dreams can prove daunting and painful. "Adventureland" is acutely perceptive in this manner. Scenes between James and Em, for instance, are truly lovely as these intelligent, verbose individuals struggle to find the words to express their deepest feelings and hurts with each other and sometimes even themselves.
"Adventureland" also works as a slyly subtle cultural critique at it exists at the dawn of the early '90s recession, where so many college graduates, like James, were forced into jobs that they had not planned for and thus, created a culture of over-educated, under paid, increasingly world weary, distrustful, disenchanted youths in dead-end jobs. Sound familiar? The constant drinking, marijuana usage and vomiting in the film doesn't exist as a punchline but as a condition plaguing our nation's children as they have inherited the mess of wretched excess left to us by the greed, avarice and over-indulgence of the previous generation. Sometimes reality does indeed bite and "Adventureland" understands in ways that the shallow "Garden State" (2004) and just plain awful "Reality Bites" (1994) never had the courage to attempt.
Despite all of the thematic heaviness, the movie is a lot of fun. It is truthful and knowing but gentle as well and a profound affection grows for the cast of characters at the theme park. You like them, you root for them, you enjoy spending time with them and sincerely hope they will one day achieve their dreams and not fall into sorrow at life's first painful curve balls.
Lovingly attentive to period detail without calling attention to itself in that kitchy "Wedding Singer" fashion, a great soundtrack that completely supports the material and one honest portrayal after another, Greg Mattola's "Adventureland" is a beautiful bittersweet comedy that has quickly earned a secure place as one of my favorite films of 2009.
SIDE NOTE: The dreaded "shaky-cam" returns and it did provide a few nausea filled moments. So, sit back from the screen a bit--unlike I did--and I think you'll be fine.
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