Monday, April 6
Review: Adventureland
Adventures in Audience Participation
Did you ever notice how much funnier things are when the people around you are laughing? I can confirm the truth of this theory after seeing Adventureland this weekend.
Since Adventureland is the latest production from the Apatow juggernaut, I wanted to see how the movie fared with the intended Apatow demographic. So I wrangled up a couple of 18-35, heterosexual, video-game-obsessed guy friends. As a control group, I brought the exact opposite of the intended demographic: a straight-friendly lesbian. I had to bribe her by paying for her ticket, but hey, this was science.
The result was eye-opening but entertaining. The guys laughed at every single sack wack in the movie; the woman buried her head in her hands at regular intervals. When she did this, the guys would start laughing at her. Then I would start laughing at all of them. So I had a great time, despite the movie being only OK.
The film's reception was made worse by poor marketing. It's being sold as the raunchy follow-up to Superbad, but (despite the sack wacks) it's a deliberately angst-ridden comedy. It's possible I might be giving the movie short shrift just because the ads were misleading; on the other hand, I don't think it quite worked as a dramedy, either.
Recent college grad James (Jesse Eisenberg) is planning to go to Europe for the summer. His hopes are dashed when his father gets demoted and the family moves to Pittsburgh. James is hired at the local theme park, run by Bobby (Bill Hader) and Paulette (Kristen Wiig), and learns to run games from cynical co-worker Joel (Martin Star). The romantic James falls hard for his fellow games staffer Em (Kristen Stewart). Meanwhile, his innocent goofiness attracts the romantic interest of ultimate carnie babe Lisa P (Margarita Levieva). James also gets romantic advice from park mechanic and resident lothario Connor (Ryan Reynolds).
Eisenberg and Stewart
The main problem with this movie was its apparent schizophrenia. If something is going to be a dramedy, serious and comic elements need to be balanced throughout. Instead, they seemed divided among the cast: some actors seemed to go for comedy, some for drama, and with some you couldn't tell.
lf Jesse Eisenberg was going for funny, for example, then he came off as a second-rate Michael Cera (actually, my female friend was convinced he was Michael Cera for most of the movie). But if James's constant Lou Reed soundtrack meant anything, his character was serious. Even so, James was a little too thoughtful, and I didn't find him engaging.
As James's love interest Em, Kristen Stewart seemed to be channeling Nightmare On Elm Street's Heather Langenkamp more than any comic heroine, and her dysfunctional parents and poor life choices kept her character firmly rooted in melodrama. Nevertheless, I found myself liking her sulky, rocker-chick persona, though I was a little skeptical that she would really go for James.
