A sweet and slap-happy mix of indie coming-of-age drama and Judd Apatows scatological but heartfelt manchild comedies, Greg Mottolas Adventureland is a winning look at the pleasures and frustrations of dead-end jobs and teenage kicks as viewed through a filter of mid-80s pop culture. The underutilized and always watchable Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) is a sheltered, introspective New York college grad who discovers that his parents' financial woes will not only quash his dream of a summer in Europe (to enjoy its more "sexually permissive" nations) but... require a move to Pittsburgh, where he lands a job at a dilapidated amusement park. There, hes thrown in with a motley crew of eccentrics, small-town types and a few genuine free spirits, most notably co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart), whose complicated past proves irresistible to his repressed psyche. Mottola, who directed Superbad, and once worked in a similar park as a teen, doesnt shy from the crude laughs that make Apatows features so popular, but he tempers it with a wistful tone and layered characters that hew closer to his earliest work, The Daytrippers. Though ill-matched at first, Eisenberg and Stewart make a likable on-screen couple, and theyre well-supported by a terrific cast that includes such die-hard scene-stealers as Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the parks offbeat owners, Martin Starr as a Russian lit aficionado, and Ryan Reynolds as a former town tamer, now reduced to working as the parks handyman. A soundtrack performed by underground faves Yo La Tengo and filled with a smart mix of hip cuts (Hüsker Dü, the New York Dolls, the Replacements) and period faves (Falcos "Rock Me Amadeus") underscores the films blend of tentative emotions and broad laughs. -- Paul Gaita [show more]
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