Adventureland (2009)

The expectation: Looking for a Sunday evening movie, we came across this one. I was hoping it would be calm and interesting; David, my boyfriend, was looking for something funny. Alas, I had heard, months ago, that this film was not just relegated to stupid teenage humor but that it had some very smart parts. I did not even know yet that it was the creation of Greg Mottola, who has worked with Judd Apatow- comedies I can really enjoy because they are stupid humor done smartly.

The result: It took me almost 15 minutes to realize that this film was set in the 80's. At first I just thought that the setting of an old-school amusement park bordering on carnivalesque and filled with tawdry entertainment was just highly reminiscent of the 80's. And then I realized that this in itself made the film great. The film did not resort to the crazy caricatures that we so often think of as the 80's (especially in film) and it did not inundate itself with 80's cliches. It was simply a story of post-college angst that happened to be set in the 80's. Because of this, the 80's references themselves provided much of the humor, while still allowing the film to retain a wholesome and often heartwarming story. And the amusement park atmosphere is a perfect setting for the seemingly mundane and apathetic atmosphere surrounding the film's narrative- where the protagonist is lost in that moment of post-grad wanderings. The supporting characters are incredibly rich and they lend themselves to the same environment where growth is impossible and leads to an interesting form of self-degradation. And even though the movie falls into a traditional narrative closure, overall it was a perfect smart comedy for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

What to look out for:
Interesting settings for specific scenes where characters find themselves hanging out in bumber car graveyards and behind game booths.
The music- I need to get the whole soundtrack.

Flickr photo by ktylerconk