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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. See archived reviews at
www.eugeneweekly.com
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