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There’s Plenty of Fun to be Had at Adventureland (Greg Mottola, 2009)
Wispy Jesse Eisenberg adds to his burgeoning CV as he takes on the lead role in this summer’s sleeper hit “Adventureland”.
Image via Wikipedia (The entrance to Disneyland’s Advenureland)
Excellent coming-of-age comedy drama, set in the late eighties, which drops our ambitious hero Jesse Eisenberg into his first ever summer job. The position at ‘Adventureland’, a less than Disney-esque theme park, appears on the surface to be nothing more than a way to kill time and earn a bit of cash whilst doing it. Clearly there will be a lot more to it than meets the eye. Like ‘The Wackness’ (Jonathan Levine, 2008) from last year, Adventureland is set in an era with which the director feels comfortable and the set is never short on nostalgia whether musical, fashion or attitude and the film provides many insights into human behaviour, how to spot it and what to try and avoid. All of us can look back on our jobs, summer or otherwise, and pick out the important lessons learnt from being in a close-knit environment with people of different ages, outlooks and personalities. It is an essential learning curve for anyone.
Thank you Wikipedia (”Kristen Stewart at Hollywood Life Magazine’s 7th Annual Breakthrough Awards”)
Flanked by Twilight’s (Catherine Hardwick, 2008) Kristen Stewart and the versatile Ryan Reynolds, our university-bound youngster is treated to a series of life lessons which he will never forget before he embarks on a new chapter in his life in the Big Apple. Probably overlooked by many cinemas around the country, Adventureland is one of those hidden gems which will no doubt become a dvd/tv classic of a sort like ‘Stand By Me’ (Rob Reiner, 1987) or ‘Crooklyn’ (Spike Lee, 1994). If you have ever been a teenager then this is close to unmissable. Not short on honesty, reality or laughs and sprinkled with healthy amounts of real human emotion.
Image via Wikipedia (A typical fairground scene, shot using a slow shutter speed setting)
8.5/10
