A hot trend in the biz these days is the off-beat comedy. Characters who aren't the prettiest, they're eccentric, and they have goofy interests. The current blueprint for this is Juno. Jason Reitman's pleasant flick about a pregnant teen has set the bar high for films like it.
Adventureland is about a young man who is forced to work at a rinky dink theme park in the summer of 1987 to make money for school. He gets the job expecting a terrible summer of toiling away but ends up having the time of his life. The dialogue is fun and generally unique. The acting is solid, even Ryan Reynolds manages to not overdo it for once. Jesse Eisenberg, from such fantastic films as The Squid and the Whale and Roger Dogder, is very solid in the lead role. Kristen Stewart, of Twilight (I'm sorry, I just puked in my mouth) fame, is good but she plays with her hair one too many times that it becomes aggravating. The flaws lie in the story. It comes across as a studio picture that has been made to look like an offbeat, indie comedy.
It's not that I didn't like it. I did. It's quite funny and is one of those movies where the character relationships work when the comedy is not as heavily involved. If someone were to say, "Hey man, wanna watch Adventureland?" I would say of course. I just wouldn't pay.
No comments:
Post a Comment