Games, Games, Games...

"Are you sure you wanna leave? The band's awful."

^ One of many quirky comments made throughout the film Adventureland by Jesse Eisenberg's character James Brennan. Adventureland was a quirky and somewhat humorous, slightly Indie film directed by Greg Mottola, which also featured the talents of Kristen Stewart, (ok, ok I use the word talent loosely) Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig, among many others. Overall I would say that the movie was okay. Maybe not something that I would watch over and over again but I certainly didn't hate it. A large problem for me was that Eisenberg practically muttered through the whole thing and it was very hard for me to understand him much less get whatever awkward joke or phrase he was trying to say. I'm not really a fan of awkwardness mostly because I tend to feel it for the actor on screen and I'd rather watch the movie than hide my face so that I don't have to deal with how awkward or embarassing the scene is. All in all it was basically a cult film that I just couldn't get into. It had a similar feel to the movie Waiting (also with Reynolds) but I enjoyed Waiting more. Idk why though I could probably guess it had a large part to do with Reynolds being one of my favourite actors...

So basically the plot of the film is that Brennan (Eisenberg) just graduated from college in 1987 and is preparing to go to Europe for his Grad present and his parents tell him that his father has been transferred and is no longer making the money he used to (though based on the dad's drinking throughout the film my assumption was that he was let go and the parents were hiding it, also because that was a large theme in the movie) and therefore unable to pay for the trip, or even his Ivy League Grad School. And so Brennan is left with finding a job, and the only place hiring is Adventureland, Pittsburgh's run down carnival/amusement park. Upon being hired Brennan is put on Games. There are two options, Games or Rides. Basically think about Games as the nerds, geeks, and untouchables of high school, whereas Rides were the attractive, fit jocks and cheerleaders. And so the rest of the movie is based on the rest of his summer, meeting the girl of his dreams and falling in love, falling into a life of alcohol and drug abuse (well more so than before), finding out that the girl of his dreams (Stewart) has been screwing the maintenance guy (Reynolds) who happens to be married, and ends up effing up his whole life. But in the end he realizes that the world sucks and as long as he has Emily (Stewart) then it's gonna be fine.

 The style of the film was very much so an Indie yet lots of big-ish names in it type of movie. Plus the movie was set in 1987 so the music and cars definitely gave you that feel even more. Throughout the movie there were lots of establishing shots. Whether it was the park opening or closing, snippets of the guests at the park things like that. I liked it and I thought that it helped sell the movie well. Unfortunately when I watch a movie I tend to focus on one aspect of it, basically whatever catches my attention and so I wasn't able to really notice the techniques yet. Still working on it.

If cult movies are your thing then definitely go see it. It's not for everyone but you wont know until you watch !

But that's the difference of opinion..