DVD Review: Greg Mottola’s Adventureland on Buena Vista Home Entertainment

It's no Superbad, but Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart's sterling chemistry make Adventureland worthwhile.

AdventurelandThere’s not much new on the surface of writer-director Greg Mottola’s post-collegiate romantic dramedy Adventureland, unless its musical immersion in ’80s indie-kid nostalgia counts: “Pale Blue Eyes,” Hüsker Dü, and a noodling Yo La Tengo score for character, Crowded House and Poison for context. But though its comedic incidence of puking and cock-punching tallies an intermediate youth-follies score, the heart of Mottola’s autobiographical paean to young male mortification lies in the one-on-one scenes between his able leads, Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. In a witty bar dialogue, Eisenberg flounders with pseudo-confessional, haltingly Woody Allenesque bravado meant to seduce; as he dodges the issue of his virginity by declaring a past crush unworthy of the sentiments of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 57, Stewart listens bemused, coolly applying her experienced upper hand: “Stop saying intercourse.” He’s a less confident, neuroticized variation on the John Cusack heroes of 20 years ago (proffering a mixtape of his top “bummer songs”) while she seems heir to the gravitas and mystery of the fledgling Jennifer Jason Leigh. The fresh truths of their hesitant stumble through the mating dance render the movie’s goofier pleasures trifling but digestible.

Adventureland again finds Eisenberg, who unsentimentally portrayed the slappable teen antihero of The Squid and the Whale, as a sexually naïve Reagan-era smartass, here as newly graduated James Brennan, Oberlin ‘87. Stranded in his native Pittsburgh for the summer after his parents’ funding of a pre-grad-school European trek falls through, he’s forced to work in a game booth at the local amusement park, where mulleted ball-tossing contestants are outfoxed by the gluing of derbies onto the heads of mannequins and the warping of basketball hoops into impossible ovals. Falling quickly for fellow alt-rock misfit Em (Stewart), James plies her with a stash of pot, but insecurely foresees the familiar burn of rejection when she advises that they “go slow,” little suspecting that she’s the latest conquest of the park’s maintenance man (Ryan Reynolds), a married, guitar-toting Casanova who sneaks his conquests off to Mom’s paneled basement.

Coming off helming the Judd Apatow-produced smash Superbad, Mottola goes for more blatantly tender notes in filming his pet project, and Stewart’s alienated cool chick has more lifelike insecurities and foibles than the targeted girls in that earlier cherry-popping quest. At its laziest, the script saddles the Adventureland workers with a gallery of doltish or vicious parents—Em gets an oily lawyer dad and witchy stepmother—recalling irksome traits of the John Hughes oeuvre. Standouts in support are Martin Starr as a depressive park vet and Russian Lit scholar whose morning-after gift to a big-haired makeout partner is a Gogol paperback, and Margarita Levieva as the ditzy A-Land bombshell who unexpectedly becomes James’s fallback in pursuit of shedding his “scarlet V.” Clowning by broom-stached Bill Hader and sighing Kristen Wiig, as the couple who resourcefully mismanage the rides and corndogs, amuses but seems imported from a different, Caddyshack-like universe; mercifully they don’t hijack whole reels like Hader and Seth Rogen’s cops in Superbad.

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Amid the antics, loose joints, and threatening customers, Eisenberg and Stewart peak with a tearful realization of joint betrayal (before James pulls a vengeful dick move worthy of his Squid jerk). The aftermath wobbles—a rain-soaked climax in New York feels like a reconsidered ending for a cornier, brighter tale—but Mottola’s stars mine an emotional adventureland of first love whenever he can’t keep the action bobbing along on alt-rock classics and fluorescent summer nights.

Image/Sound

I’ve never seen neon lights attract less noise than they do on this Adventureland DVD. Color saturation is splendid and edge haloes are nil, but skin tones can appear splotchy at times, especially in the rare close-up. Dialogue is clear and the ’80s tunes, well, rock.

Extras

The commentary track by Greg Mottola and Jesse Eisenberg is one of the sweetest, most thoughtful, amusing, and informative ones I’ve heard in ages. Mottola’s praise for Kristin Stewart’s instincts, specifically how she refused to play her big confession scene for cheap pathos, is a testament to his respect for the acting process, while the frankness with which he speaks about the links between incidents in the movie and his own life avoids self-pity. Eisenberg, a neurotic but talented actor, shares Mottola’s respect and understanding for the film’s soundtrack, riffing off Mottola’s revelations (like the tragedy of urban kids living on streets without names having the worst porn and/or drag names) and providing amusing anecdotes (like studying up on Watergate because of a throwaway reference to the scandal in the movie) throughout. Rounding out the disc: three deleted scenes for Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig fans (with optional commentary), a making-of featurette that rhymes with the confessional spirit of the commentary track and is most notable for the production crew’s search for the perfect amusement park, a picture music selection feature, and a bunch of previews.

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Overall

It’s no Superbad, but Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart’s sterling chemistry make Adventureland worthwhile.

Score: 
 Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Margarita Levieva, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig  Director: Greg Mottola  Screenwriter: Greg Mottola  Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment  Running Time: 107 min  Rating: R  Year: 2009  Release Date: August 25, 2009  Buy: Video, Soundtrack

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