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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 2009)
movies movie clips BY MOLLY TEMPLETON The Best Worst Job Ever Don’t eat the corn dogs ADVENTURELAND: Written and directed by Greg Mottola. Cinematography, Terry Stacey. Editor, Anne McCabe. Music by Yo La Tengo. Music supervisor, Tracy McKnight. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds and Martin Starr. Miramax, 2009. R. 107 min. 44441 L ike pretty much everything in writer- director Greg Mottola (Superbad)’s semi-autobiographical new fi lm, there’s a certain wry irony in the name Adventureland. Adventureland, in the fi lm, is a slightly crumbly amusement park in Pittsburgh, full of disgruntled employees, puking kids and local toughs who might reach for a knife if denied a giant-ass panda. Only a very few people could be expected to fi nd adventure here — fairly small children, perhaps, or early twentysomethings whose minds are rather like those of small children thanks to some special cookies. But of course there are plenty of adventures in Adventureland for James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg, who sounds a little like Michael Cera and looks a little like Andy Samberg), a recent college graduate whose post-collegiate plans have been put on hold by his parents’ money problems. James doesn’t get to go to Europe; he gets to go home to Pittsburgh and fi nd a job. If he can. “They don’t like people like me where I’m from!” he complains in faint terror. Eisenberg plays James as a sweet, smart fellow whose future has, until now, been in an ongoing bubble of parental protection. It’s no surprise when he’s totally thrown by a reality in which school and vacation will no longer pay for themselves. It is a surprise — and a bummer, at least at fi rst — when the real world initially takes the form of a job at an amusement park to which slightly off characters seem to gravitate. Besides James, a would-be travel essayist stuck running the horse-racing booth, there’s bitter, philosophical, pipe-smoking Joel (Martin Starr); local would-be rock god Connell (Ryan Reynolds), the maintenance guy; Lisa P. (Margarita Levieva), the resident looker; Frigo (Matt Bush), James’ childhood friend turned nemesis; and Em (Kristen Stewart), a complicated NYU student whose status-obsessed stepmother is sure she’s only working at the park to embarrass her parents. Em is brave and cautious, a young woman who throws parties while her parents are gone but doesn’t exactly have a party spirit. She’s a little dry, a little fragile, a little blunt, a little knowing; she’s a lovely foil for James. Adventureland plays out as a love triangle and a coming-of-age story populated with familiar character types who rarely slip into bland cliché or are coated with the too- clever gloss that stains many a teen comedy. (This is a post-collegiate comedy, sure, Jesse Eisenberg and Martin Starr in Adventureland but the characters actually look their ages, which means they look like the teenagers in most fi lms). But Adventureland is only part comedy. The laughs are there, though subtler and gentler than you might expect, but this fi lm has a sweetness that comes from James — the sort of bookish, too-honest guy who’s passed up sex thus far because he wasn’t really in love — from the soft-edged, self- aware quirks of his coworkers and from the nostalgia evoked by the ’80s setting and the impeccably chosen soundtrack, which is like a mix tape made by all the characters working together. There’s nothing glib and self-satisfi ed about Adventureland, in which people fucking up talk, refreshingly, like people fucking up; they can’t fi nish sentences, instead stammering and swearing while trying to fi nd the right words. But each mistake eventually adds up to the small, unforgettable adventure of taking the fi rst steps into adult life — with all the humor and horrors that attend the process. ew OPENING OR RETURNING: Baraka: A wordless portrait of the Earth through the eyes of director-cinematographer Ron Fricke that conveys a sense of its evolution. Magnifi cent scenes of unspoiled nature contrasts with the frenzy of big cities as the everyday lives and cultures of people in 24 countries is caught on fi lm. Unrated. 9 pm Monday, April 13, Wandering Goat. Free. Coraline: Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) adapts Neil Gaiman’s creepy, fantastic story into a creepy, fantastic movie about a girl who fi nds, behind a door in the wall, a fantatic parallel world — complete with her Other Mother, who has buttons for eyes. PG. Movies 12. Copyright Criminals: Kembrew McLeod shows his documentary about hip hop culture, sampling practices, the music industry and their relationship with copyright law. 7 pm April 14, 221 Allen, UO. Free. Daniel Eli Dronsfi eld: Showcase of short fi lms by Eugene native Dronsfi eld, including narrative fi lms, documentaries and music videos. 7 pm Friday, April 10, New Zone Gallery. Doubt: John Patrick Shanley directs this adaptation of his prizewinning play about a nun and the priest she believes is paying too much attention to a student. Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis. PG13. David Minor Theater. 44211 (12/31/08) Dragonball: Evolution: Emmy Rossum and Chow Yun Fat are among those starring in this live-action Dragonball adventure about a team of warriors saving the world. (What else would they do?) PG. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. Gomorrah: This widely praised Italian fi lm is a modern- day gangster story, a look at intersecting lives in a Naples apartment complex run by the Camorra syndicate, which has its fi ngers everywhere. The New York Times called the fi lm “a corrosive and ferociously unsentimental fi ctional look at Italian organized crime.” Not rated. 135 min. Bijou. See review this issue. Hannah Montana: The Movie: The inescapable teen returns to theaters with a movies about getting away from fame for a while. G. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. Heckler’s Night: Mock loudly and cheerfully as the Goat screens Urban Cowboy. 7 pm Wednesday, April 15, Wandering Goat. Free. Hotel for Dogs: Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew) is one of two siblings who have to give up their dog when they’re taken into a foster home — but the resilient kids turn an empty building into a dog hotel for their dog and others. PG. Movies 12. Margaret Meade Film & Video Festival: International documentary series begins with Gimme Green, about the American obsession with lawns. (Festival continues April 22 & 29.) 7 pm Wednesday, April 15, 175 Knight Law, UO. $3. Observe and Report: Seth Rogen stars as a mall cop (another one? Really?) who must take down a fl asher, try to charm the makeup-counter woman he adores (Anna Faris) and beat the local cops at their own job. Er, I think. R. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. Films open the Friday following EW publication date unless otherwise noted. 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