Adventureland

Some of the best friends I'll ever make and most of the best stories I have to tell come from working a lousy minimum wage job where dignity was something I had to fight for every day. It was a battle I often lost. So I know exactly where Greg Mottola (director of "Superbad") was coming from with "Adventureland."
In the summer of 1987, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg, "The Squid and the Whale") was supposed to be going on a trip to Europe to celebrate graduating college. Unfortunately his parents (Jack Gilpin and Wendy Malick) can no longer afford to pay for it as they promised and with almost no money of his own, James needs to get himself a summer job to pay for graduate school in New York. With extremely limited work experience the only job James can get is at Adventureland, a Pittsburgh theme park run by a kooky couple (Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig) who love their jobs far more than they should.
It doesn't take long for James to realize how awful this job really is. He loses a "giant ass panda" to a dishonest dad at knife point in his first couple of days. The only thing making it worthwhile are the friends he's making who have been suffering there for ages. Joel (Martin Starr, "Freaks and Geeks") shows James the ropes while Em (Kristen Stewart) catches James's eye. It ends up being the best and worst time of his life all at once.
"Adventureland" was marketed as a silly teen comedy with a whiff of nostalgia to it, and it looked enjoyable enough, but this was a huge disservice to it. Greg Mottola has written and directed a film that captures the joys, frustrations, and boredom of working at a job like this. The on the clock gripe sessions, standing around after work trading cynical wisecracks, followed by an impromptu house party at a co-worker's. This makes for a very funny but also incredibly authentic film, filled with well-developed characters, outstanding performances (particularly Eisenberg, Stewart, Starr, and a toned down Ryan Reynolds), and some truly heartbreaking moments. Comedy and drama are rarely balanced so well as they are here. The budding romance between James and Em doesn't feel like something out of a goofy teen comedy because that's just not what "Adventureland" is.
I enjoyed just about every moment of "Adventureland," even the more painful ones. I loved that although it's set in 1987, the time period is never exploited for cheap gags. We just feel like we're there with no sense of irony. You can tell this movie wasn't made by VH1. The only eighties song that gets pounded into our skulls is Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus," but that's only because poor James has to hear it "twenty times a day" at the park. Anyone who's worked at an "entertainment venue" knows you hear the same music over and over again, all day, every day until you want to kill someone. And then they play the song some more.
This is a great movie about a time in your life you can never forget. Mottola is clearly glad to have left it behind him, but a big part of him misses it too. I know how he feels. 9/10.