Review: Adventureland

Adventureland

Adventureland tells a story of a recent college graduate witty beyond his years who misses out on a tour of Europe because of money troubles and gets a shitty summer job working at Adventureland, where he just happens to fall in love.

This movie is the newest in a long line of mis-marketed movies. The promos made it look like just another light-hearted teen sex comedy in Apatow fashion, but it is actually much more dramatic and heavy than it appears. It is incredibly well-paced effectively balancing both quirk and sadness. Greg Mottola succeeds in a lot of places Superbad failed adding much more heart and depth of character to this than Superbad had (not that Superbad wasn't good). The story has a lot of conventional elements but uses it in a much different way that one would think.

For instance, Ryan Reynold's rockstar wannabe having an affair with the protagonists crush would be a villain in most other movies, but here Reynold's continues his streak of lovable jackasses. Both Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart both take roles that they are very familiar with, the geeky nice guy and the rebelious chick respectively, but carry much more weight than usual and perform graciously.

Bill Hader also continues a streak of being incredibly funny in everything he does. The quality of the any of his movies aside, Hader proves he is the next big thing when it comes to comedy.

Overall, the film was a well-made teen dramedy that hits all the right notes but fails to be memorable. It is a solid flick, but doesn't dare to be great. It was missing that extra oomph, but a good watch nonetheless. Highly reccomend at least a look-see.

6/10