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MASSAWYRM invokes the mighty name of John Hughes while swooning and fawning over ADVENTURELAND!!
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
I’m just gonna lay my cards out on the table. Greg Mottola is this generation’s John Hughes. SUPERBAD was his SIXTEEN CANDLES - a goofy coming of age high school comedy detailing a wild, over the top adventure happening in a single night with Michael Cera and Jonah Hill serving as his Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall and McLovin as his Long Duck Dong. Much like Hughes, Mottola has quickly graduated from the gag based comedy and moved into the riskier but more rewarding waters of young adult drama and sexual politics. This is Mottola’s PRETTY IN PINK.
A much deeper, less humor driven, touching coming of age story, ADVENTURELAND follows a common storyline in very uncommon ways. It is 1987 and James, a college graduate who is somehow still a virgin, must take a job for the summer to help him cover his grad school expenses for the next year. And in classic Hollywood fashion, he takes a job that changes his life forever. A true to form first love tale, Mottola is unafraid to play with very detailed characters in very uncomfortable situations. Nothing is clean and easy in this as James falls for a girl who is secretly dating someone she shouldn’t while the much pined for park hottie begins to develop a thing for James. Far from cardboard cutouts, each character is painstakingly detailed and likable in their own way – even when they are the film’s foil.
Sure, it’s funny. But it isn’t THAT kind of comedy. There’s nothing madcap or zany or even over the top. Every bit of humor here is character driven, the kind of funny that you laugh at because it is true. The geeks aren’t mercilessly picked on as much as they’re pretty much ignored. The girl our hero is in love with is far from a perfect, untouched flower – she’s more of a broken girl with her own heartbreaking story. And the film’s heel, if you can really call him that, isn’t some one-dimensional, letterman jacket wearing asshole. Sure, he’s a dick. But you get him. You kind of feel for him. And you see why everyone else likes him.
And what drives the film home even more is that our hero isn’t the nerdiest of the nerds – on the contrary he is well met by something of a “geek chorus” in his buddy who is even more ignored, socially awkward and financially screwed than he is. And there is this constant, very subtle resentment from him towards our hero who, despite his nerdy foibles, actually has a shot with a hot girl, a possible future and people genuinely like him. It’s a weird kind of “Ducky” role that balances out the main character and brings him more into the everyman category, making him readily identifiable to the majority of the audience.
The dialog here is down to earth with characters that are never smarter than they should be. And what 80’s gags there are here are subtle, never trying to hit you over the head with Rubik’s cube jokes or people wearing outfits that were only really found in rock videos. Mottola sets a tone here, one of a more realistic portrayal of the times drawn from his own experiences. It’s not a laugh a minute nor will is it a 100 minute episode of I LOVE THE 80’S. It is a coming of age drama, one that cuts to the bone and guts you once it runs its course. That’s not to say that you won’t leave with a smile on your face – but this isn’t some magical happy story where everything gets tied up all nice and neat. It’s like life. Some things work out. Others don’t.
Everyone is great here. Jesse Eisenberg really sells his hapless geek. Ryan Reynolds turns on his patented douche charm without tempering it with his usual you’re-gonna-love-me-anyways mystique, allowing him to be kind of unlikable to the audience while appearing to the characters in the film as the guy WE always see him as. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are hilarious together as the park management team. And Kristen Stewart, dear lord. Let’s just say Mottola presents her just so as to propel her into the status of sex symbol. Sure, she was already well on her way, but this is the role that’s going to keep guys her age up nights. She’s got this energy about her that is so raw, so broken, so unchecked that people are going to lose their minds. She personifies that tempestuous first love and took me back to my own first love with a girl like her. If you haven’t fallen in love with her yet, this is the film that will convince you.
There hasn’t been a writer/director like this since Hughes; someone who so perfectly connected with their youth to tell an honest, true to life story about love and its many complications. This is a first love story. And as most folks will tell you, first love is rarely a walk in the park. First love is fumbling in the dark for a condom, it is trying to figure out how to tell a girl you love her without scaring the shit out of her, it is about missing very direct and obvious signs that you should be kissing her rather than running your mouth. And that’s the kind of love you will find in ADVENTURELAND. It is about the mistakes. It is about the inexperience. And it is about the lessons you walk away with.
It is, quite simply, the most honest, teen oriented story about love that I’ve seen in quite a long time. Mottola is crafting classics – teen classics that a generation will grow up with and revisit in the way my generation pines for THE BREAKFAST CLUB, SIXTEEN CANDLES and FERRIS BUELLERS’S DAY OFF. I love his films. They are a breath of fresh air in a genre rife with imitation. As much as there are some great teen comedies that we consider reminiscent of Hughes, no one has really captured the spirit of these films more than once. Until now. Sweet, adorable and at times heartbreaking, ADVENTURELAND is one of this year’s rare treats. Something you should seek out at your earliest opportunity.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
(Editorial note: I just wanted to take a moment to point out that while John Hughes wrote, produced and is generally credited with the success of PRETTY IN PINK, it was in fact directed by Howard Deutch, who tends not to get props for his work on that classic film. I didn’t want to in any way ignore his contribution, despite the fact that PRETTY IN PINK tends to be considered part of the John Hughes holy high school trilogy.)
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AAAAH! ANOTHER WIN!
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Also directed "Some Kind of Wonderful" written by Hughes.
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I'm all In
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...that came up with this one?
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Gotta wait till mid July to see it in the UK though.
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16 Candles, Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club are her favourite movies of all time.
She hates anything with aliens, swordfighting, giant robots, monsters or dinosuars. Like, all the best shit!!! -
I saw her in "Into the Wild". She transformed a so-so adventure story into something truly heartbreaking. The hero didn't want to get with her, and he wasn't gay? God, what a loser! I was glad to see him go...
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Your life/wife sounds like crap. Get a new one and move on. Life is too short to hate aliens, swordfighting, giant robots, monsters or dinosuars movies.
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You need to let her go...It's time. Re-claim your manhood.
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is frickin' hilarious
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Hey, it's pretty damn easy to graduate college and remain a virgin. Take it from me :(
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Because the trailer was nothing but fart gags, vomit, sex jokes, and guys pissing on sliding glass doors.
Mass - did anything from the trailer actually make the final film? -
Really, comparing this guy to John Hughes is just an outrage. This just proves how badly geeks want to live in denial that the current American film scene is in the toilet. "Superbad" is the most perfectly named movie of all time. One thing you're forgetting: John Hughes' movies were SINCERE. They were heartfelt. Superbad was an angry fat kid being mean and screaming at people for 2 hours. Anything with Apatow's name attached to it has an undercurrent of misogyny, misanthropy and bad taste. Hughe's movies never trafficked in meanness for a laugh.
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Mar 16, 2009 10:05:34 AM CDT
Does this review mean we should look forward to his Home Alone?
by royston lodge
'nuff said.
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What are the odds? Sorry, but I'll wait to read a review in which Kristin Wiig isn't looking at me the whole time.
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John Hughes teenager movies? Overrated.
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"Hughe's movies never trafficked in meanness for a laugh."
Have you ever seen the Breakfast Club? Most of the stuff said by the kids to each other in that movie is just plain cruel.
What about Plains, Trains, and Automobiles? Martin's character is a complete asshole to John Candy (and everyone else) for the entire movie.
I can go on...
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No way. She's close to anorexic and is a pothead. Not to mention, she LOOKS like pothead with the vacant expression,etc.
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was the high school trilogy in my eyes.
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Thanks Massawyrm. Your review hits on exactly what I thought I was seeing in this project despite the usual negative chorus in TalkBack. I've been looking forward to this for some time. This generation needs more John Hughes inspired films and less "Porkys" inspired films. What happened to sincere coming-of-age dramas with bits of comedy? Like "My Bodyguard." Or "Over the Edge." Or the mostly comedic John Hughes films you mentioned that had hearts rooted in the real issues of growing up. Maybe this won't end up as a classic of that genre (or maybe it eventually will), but it's a start.
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Mar 16, 2009 11:13:58 AM CDT
"...a college graduate who is somehow still a virgin"
by nasty in the pasty
Why does everyone think that everyone gets laid by age 16? I'd argue a lot of people don't lose their virginity until their early 20s.
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I think there is something really attractive about her. I think she has that "cute girl you have a chance with/really chill" thing going on.
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Virgin until 32
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I think it's a great movie until the inexplicable, tacked-on Hollywood ending where Duckie gets shafted completely. Sure, they throw him Kristy Swanson (not a bad deal), but it's so obviously last-minute and unrealistic. Test audiences are retarded.
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I will probably see this movie, if for nothing else than to see Kennywood. I lived in Pittsburgh for 10 years. As soon as I saw the promos I knew what I was looking at. Oddly the park really does look like it is from the 80s. And besides, my tattoo artist is an extra. I just hope the movie is as good as everyone is saying.
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I sat all the way through Twilight based on a scoop I read on the Internets, but no dice.
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As much as I laugh at the Apatow comedy universe it ends up leaving a bad taste in my mouth. It's just so unrelentingly angry and foul-mouthed and misanthropic. Even with some "heartwarming" moments, the overall impression is dark and cynical. It's what keeps those films from being ones I want to own. I get the humor, some of it's very very funny, but ultimately I don't want to go back and spend time with these fucking awful people, lol. Jonah Hill in real life would have you homicidal within minutes. Seth Green would be a fun for a while and then you would get really tired of him. This film looks like more of the same, and it's not always an accurate guide, but the trailer really put me off. I also agree with Tin Snoman that the ending of PRETTY IN PINK was a complete cop-out and ended up reinforcing every negative cliche about a girl going with the good-looking asshole in the end and not the decent loyal average guy. That the girls who saw that movie ASKED FOR that ending says pretty much everything you need to know about teenage girls.
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That in SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL - a much more entertaining film in my eyes - the guy DOES choose the tomboy best friend girl and not the "hottie". Hmmm.
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Mar 16, 2009 2:45:09 PM CDT
Anybody remember the "Brat Pack" films that went wrong?
by the reluctant austinite
"Tuff Turf" is my favorite Brat Pack movie gone wrong with James Spader and Robert Downey Jr. Another is "Blue City" with Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson. And who could forget (who remembers?) Anthony Michael Hall's "Out of Bounds"?
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Because he doesn't give a fuck about what other people tell him to feel.
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Breakfast Club, you have to admit, if you turn the TV on at 10pm on a Wednesday night while you're making a peanut butter sandwich, and "The Breakfast Club" is on, you know you're in there til the end credits.
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St Elmos Fire. Probably because the film was equal parts entertainment as well as a rite of passage for the actors themselves.
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Was I the only one shocked into dumbassery when AMH first popped on 'Edward Scissorhands'? All "jock asshole"-ed out? Coming from the 'skinny, somewhat bug eyed nerdy kid' international grand champion master Dork in all the better Hughes movies (except Ferris) and then, a mere few years later, he turned into the no-neck jock douchebag character who usually gave our beloved dork such a hard time (think those beer drinking dudes with the beeramid and an uknown John Cussack standing next to Hall as he knocks the beeramid over and the jocks standing up and grunting while Hall blames Cussack!)I swear the Anthony Michael Hall from Weird Science is not the same guy in Scissorhands or even The Dark Knight. He never tossed off to anything. Ever. Even if the water was running all day. Never tossed off to anything.
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Mar 16, 2009 4:16:17 PM CDT
Fake Anthony Michael Hall replaced the real one--
by the reluctant austinite
--in "Johnny Be Good" in 1998 as a jock football player with Robert Downey Jr. That's only two years after the real Anthony Michael Hall's last performance in "Out of Bounds." I believe Hall's car licence plate in "Johhny Be Good" read "20IF," as in "Anthony Michael Hall would be 20 years old IF he were still alive."
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I don't consider that a John Hughes movie, although he produced. Even it was, it would be one of his worst. I have high hopes for Adventureland and pray that it's nothing like Pretty in Pink.
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adblock plus = no ads so stfu please
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John Hughes' movies are ice cream. Apatow's movies are horse manure.
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Not unless Mottola sells his soul to Satan.
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Seriously. Pretty in Pink was drivel, and so will this.
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Try 34, motherfucker.
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You bring up a very intriguing point. I can't wait for the new 'Breakfast Club'.
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