Hey folks, Harry here with one of the more anticipated debuts from Sundance... at least for me, I love SUPERBAD and I'm very interested to see what Greg Mottola is as a personal director of his own material. Is he as rip-roaring funny? Is he emotionally bare and real? Or something entirely different? ADVENTURELAND has been screened and here's the first results...
Hey Guys, Greg Mottola kind of came out of nowhere and kicked my butt with "Superbad." Say what you will about the script but Mottola added a few inspired touches of his own that elevated lewd fraternity into something a little more. Then, I noticed his name under the director's credit on a few episodes of Arrested Development and I was even more impressed. With "Adventureland" Mottola is directing his own script (that he'd been working on since before "Superbad") and the result is something unexpected and special. The film does touch some bases of the teen comedy formula. James, the main character is the sensitive virginal type who is unsure of himself around the opposite sex and "reads poetry for fun." Thankfully though, this movie isn't about him hatching some hairbrained scheme to finally lose the "scarlet v." Instead, it's about how he has to get a summer job at Adventureland, a junky theme park, so he can save up enough money to pay his rent when he moves to New York for grad school. His primary concern isn't about getting laid, it's more surviving the summer with his dignity intact while his intellectual college friends spend the summer in Europe. There at Adventureland James meets Em, the edgy mysterious girl that is a prerequisite in most adolescent coming of age films. Em is a bright girl from a well-off family but wears worn band shirts and works at Adventureland to annoy her dad and step-mom. James quickly becomes infatuated with her. She is drawn to him as well, but won't let herself get too close The characterization of Em is something that sets "Adventureland" apart from films like "Superbad" and "Sex Drive." Em isn't an object of lust, and she isn't a Manic Pixie Dream Girl that teaches James how to live and love life. There is a sadness to her, and as more is revealed about her family and relationships the more complex she becomes as a character. Ryan Reynolds is perfectly cast as a sort-of likeable prick who brags about jamming with Lou Reed but can't further his music career because he is trapped in a loveless marriage. Martin Starr is great as the nerdy guy who is maybe a litlle too smart for his own good. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig play the owners of the park. They are the most conspicuous of the cast, and their performances constantly border on cartoonish exagerration - especially in comparison with the more natural performances of Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Wiig. Luckily, Hader, Wiig and Mottola are all deft and talented anough to balance the ridiculousness with the pathos. They keep it believable by keeping the humor based in the script and the situations the characters are in instead of rolling the camera and letting Hader say whatever wacky improvisations come into his head. In one scene Martin Starr compares another characer's genetalia to the platonic ideal. I think that's what's going on with the two main characters. They both see the other as something perfect and then never feel worthy of the others love. They both need to make mistakes in order to learn how to love someone for who they really are, not for how you wish they are. Just so you don't think this is a serious touchy-feely movie I'm happy to report to you that there are not one but two erections at inopportune times, plenty of vomiting, multiple punches to the balls, a bald lady getting her wig ripped off, one corndog to the face, and Bill Hader in a ridiculous mustache. Something for everyone. Thanks! Maluquiro.
