Adventureland

If you want an example of how differently a movie can be in its full form from how it is advertised to the public, watch the trailer for Adventureland, and then go see the movie. Hollywood tends to run on a theory of sure-things. If a director makes a movie that does very well, their follow-up film is usually advertised as being just like their first effort. In the case of Adventureland, the director, Greg Mottola, had previously directed Superbad, so of course Adventureland, which has a few comedic moments, was billed as being the next Superbad. It is not the next Superbad. Adventureland exists on its own and is an efective drama with some funny parts, not a comedy with heart, like Superbad.

(Funny things happen to you when you go into a movie with focused expectations. The same thing happened with Fargo. Fargo got billed as this murder-mystery-comedy. It's not. It has serious moments of pain and violence. It is about the kidnapping of a woman who's husband owes money and is blackmailing his father-in-law. You sit down ready to laugh your ass off, and then you're struck dumb by all the serious plot elements that keep cropping up. I hated Fargo when I first saw it. Now, having seen almost all of the Coen brothers' films, I know how to watch it.)

Adventureland has college grads having to reevaluate their futures because of new financial problems in the family, intelligent literature majors working menial jobs and dealing with being smarter than all the people they "serve", drugs and alcohol (surprise, surprise!) being used as an outlet for angst, etc. It's a serious movie dealing with the serious problems of serious people who are very average in most respects.

The title refers to the theme park where the main cast is employed, but it's also a hint that working there isn't going to leave you unchanged. The main character, James (Jesse Eisenberg), is on his way to Europe with friends and then to Columbia grad school for journalism. His father gets demoted at his job and money gets tight forcing James to scrap his Europe plans and take a summer job at the titular park. Instead of spending the summer away from his friends, he makes new ones and learns a lot. It sounds trite, but it doesn't play out that way. Plus his summer's adventures lead him on to a very different adventure of his own when summer ends.

There's a lot going on in this movie and it's a great slice-of-life flick. There are a lot of characters that you end up feeling different things for. Much like if you had worked at Adventureland for a summer, you would know some people and not others, you would have ups and downs. The movie is detailed and has some great tension between characters leading to a "happy" ending but not a story-book one. There aren't villains or heroes, just people being different the way people are from one another. I'm sorry that this movie is advertised as being something it's not because people will think it's an unfunny comedy, and not a great dramatic piece of 80's nostalgia.