The Current Online

by Ben Doerflinger

Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart (Abbot Genser/Miramax Films/MCT).

Imagine the worst job you’ve ever had in your life. Now mix that in with meeting your best friend and the girl of you’re dreams, and you’ve got Adventureland, the newest comedy directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad) in a nutshell.

James Brennan (Jesse Eisenbergm, The Education of Charlie Banks) had his summer all planned out until he discovers that his family is suffering from major financial trouble, canceling his trip to Europe and forcing him to take a job at a rundown carnival called Adventureland. While there, he forms bonds with most of his other workers. His fellow games worker Em (Kristen Stewart, Twilight) turns out to be the girl of his dreams and has just as many problems as James with her step-mother. Joel (Martin Starr, Knocked Up, Superbad) becomes a kindred spirit of a nerd with no future having majored in Russian Literature and has a cynical attitude. Lisa P. (Margarita Levieva, The Invisible) the hottest worker becomes something of a love interest for him, or really more of a lust interest and only uses James. The park manager Bobby and his wife Paulette (Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig) are kind of like the parents for James, where-as they don’t seem to have any real lives. James forms a student teacher relationship with the park maintenance worker and musician Connell (Ryan Reynolds, Smoking Aces, Definitely, Maybe) when it comes to both women and life. The whole film follows James as he work at this dead-end job hoping to make enough money to go to school in New York. This is really an underdog’s movie. You’ve got the kid who knows just about nothing about life and pretty much learns it on the job, and not that kind of job either. Add to the fact that there’s enough booze and weed for a college frat party and you’ve got a crazy teen flick, complete with “pot cookies.” The love triangles in the film is more like a love square between James, Lisa P, Em, and Connell. The entire story is a roller coaster, no pun intended, but it’s definitely one a person can enjoy. The soundtrack features music from Lou Reed, David Bowie, The Cure, and INXS. If you’re into comedies, this would be good movie for you. It’s got romance, physical comedy, corny teen jokes, and drama. Some of the jokes you could probably see coming. It’s not as stupid comical as Dude Where’s My Car, it’s more like real life comedy the way you could actually see this happening to you or someone you know.