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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