Adventures in Innocence

We know these people.  You don't have to have been 18 in 1987, or have spent that perilous summer between high school and college working in a tacky, run-down amusement park, to get Adventureland.

Every guy went to school with a Frigo (that obnoxious little a-hole who delighted in humiliating you when you were trying to act like you'd outgrown him), and every girl has known a Connell (that dreamboat  stud-muffin you knew was full of shit, but was nonetheless irresistible).  In the annals of geekdom, Joel, clutching his worn copy of Gogol, has occupied a place in any young intellectual's life, google-eyed glasses, pale skin, frog lips and all.

All of the above (peerlessly portrayed by Matt Bush, Ryan Reynolds and Martin Starr, respectively) represent no reinvention of the character wheel.  But funnily enough, it's precisely because they are so familiar that the characters in Greg Mottola's lovely little coming-of-ager are so engrossing to watch.  Not because they're stereotypical, but due to their being credible, painfully amusing variations on universal "types" who, in this movie, are probably thinly fictionalized versions of people whom writer/director Mottola actually grew up with.

He's helped by pitch-perfect casting.  Jesse Eisenberg, whom you may remember from The Squid and the Whale, has become the Jewish Michael Cera (Mottola's last protagonist-surrogate, in Superbad) and brings a heart-wrenching, gangly sincerity to his part of put-upon James, the boy-man stuck in a job from hell while he dreams of an Ivy League glory that's just out of reach at the summer's end.  And though she may've gotten some flack for the superficiality of her role in Twilight, here Kristen Stewart is ideal as Em, the bruised beauty, neurotic but alluring, that he pines for, thinks is out of his league, and then can't quite believe he's really gotten to make out with.

The I've been there! (even I wasn't... there) factor in Adventureland exerts such a powerful pull that critics usually not so inclined to personally reminisce have waxed nostalgic in their reviews. Here's Roger Ebert:

I worked two summers at Crystal Lake Pool in Urbana. I was technically a lifeguard and got free Cokes, but I rarely got to sit in the lifeguard chair. As the junior member of the staff, I was assigned to Poop Patrol, which involved plunging deep into the depths with a fly swatter and a bucket. Not a lot of status when you were applauded while carrying the bucket to the men’s room. (“No spilling!” my boss Oscar Adams warned me.) But there was another lifeguard named Toni and — oh, never mind. I don’t think she ever knew.

As a romantic comedy, Adventureland is a breath of fresh air, a welcome antidote to the broad, lewd and crude slapstick we've come to expect from a teen movie.  Mottola, despite having demonstrated his facility with raunch-com in the farcical excesses of Superbad, has delivered a kind of Anti-Apatow picture.  It's a movie of small pleasures, of little gestures and quiet moments that speak volumes.  And when it does turn up the volume -- Em's brief attack on an Anti-Semitic hypocrite and James' crazed dash to get away from an angry thug bent on beating him up are two bits that come to mind -- the results are immensely satisfying, in part because they never pop the bubble of the movie's deftly, sneakily romanticized reality.

Mottola's rendering of period is so low-key and seemingly off-the-cuff that the 1987 of it all never becomes in-your-face parody.  Its characters inhabit their world with the casual enthusiasm of that time -- local hottie Lisa P. doing her Madonna moves, the trying-too-hard cover band in the bar aping Foreigner  -- and the soundtrack is a hipster's guide to the more subversive music of its era, since that's what James and co. were listening to; it's no accident that Brooklyn alt-gods Yo La Tengo did the honors, with the Replacements and Big Star (extra musical cool points) rocking out under the plot points.

Under is the idea here: under the surface, under the mainstream culture, literally under a bridge when James and Em's romance goes dark and messy.  Adventureland has also been under the radar, in terms of box office and media attention, but its underdog story -- predictable, sure, but just quirky and personal enough to make all the difference -- is well worth seeking out before it disappears from the mall. 

Without being mawkishly sentimental or cartoonish about it, the movie is a celebration of innocence: how it survives the indignities of having to hawk rigged carny games for peanuts, and the pain of having feelings too big and complicated to bear with adult grace.  If you're lucky, you'll get to see it with someone you love.  And if you can't do that, it should help to affirm your hope that love can be found, even in the unlikeliest, seemingly dead end-iest of places.

Comments

[E.C. Henry]

Billy,

I absolutely LOVED how you fused Roger Ebert's trip down memory lane in reaction to "Adventureland" -- because that's the universal appeal of a movie set in 1987: your own remebreance of a coming of age romance you experienced. When people start taking that stroll after watching your movie that's a clear sign you've made a movie with emotional ressonance.

What a tallent Greg Mottola is. Wasn't the biggest fan of Superbad, it was just too raunchy as main stream movie for my tastes, but Adventureland is a different story, and after posting I'm gunna check that stud out on IMBD. Can't wait to see what he's doing next. Also can't wait to see how Kristen Stewart's acting career plays out. VERY bright future, if she plays her cards right...

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

[J]

If only all dead-end jobs were that fun.

...my current job is so boring a script of it would be 2 pages. 2 pages TOO LONG.

[Christian H]

Great analysis. I noticed that for every Juno - small indie movie that walks on water - there are about 20 of these. Films that don't tap the same into the boffo zeitgeist. But then, cinema is abstract not concrete.

[mernitman]

EC: You might enjoy Mottola's first feature, "The Daytrippers."

J: Badda-BOM.

Christian: ...Ephemeral not plastic.

[free movie]

This one of that film that you love from the beginning of the movie, the characters are lovable and the actors are cute. The scenes are very harmonic and everything goes right even if its not by a screen play. Really cute movie.

[dee]

Why are people so obsessed with calling Jesse Eisenberg the "Jewish Michael Cera"?

No one seems to call Joseph Gordon-Levitt the "Jewish Heath Ledger".

Nobody calls Logan Lerman "the Jewish Zac Efron" (yes, I know Zac Efron is part Jewish, but something tells me that's not the reason).

This Jew-identification some people really like doing appears to be very, very selective.

[mernitman]

Dee: Guilty as charged. I think in the case of this actor, we (that is, me and whoever else is doing such ethnic profiling) were searching for the defining "what is it that makes the difference between these two actors who do look much alike and often get cast in similar roles?" factor. Apologies if the description gave offense.