Adventureland (2009)

Directed by Greg Mottola. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, Margarita Levieva, Kristen Wiig, Matt Bush, Wendie Malick, Jack Gilpin, Paige Howard, Mary Birdsong, Josh Pais, Michael Zegen. [R]

College grad Eisenberg has his heart set on Columbia for a journalism degree, but a financial setback in his family forces him to get a summer job at a local amusement park: Pittsburgh’s own Adventureland. There, he meets a co-worker (Stewart) with whom a romantic relationship develops, but she’s secretly having an affair with a married musician/maintenance man (Reynolds). A sweet, smart and resonant comedy set in the 1980s that knows how to tap into nostalgia both favorably and critically; it’s as innocent as it is cynical, as hopeful as it is melancholy, and it’s easy to like all of the characters, even the ones who are obnoxious or just plain jerks (avoid the Tommy Frigo’s of your life…but they mean well, darn it). Not too many great insights—although our hero is right about Melville—yet writer/director Greg Mottola, whose script was inspired by his own experiences working at the real-life park, captures a specific, relaxed vibe you can get lost in, and if you’re like me, you’ll laugh and cringe at the youthful joys and anxieties rolling in like a fog of marijuana smoke. Eisenberg and Stewart are well-matched, and Bill Hader (boisterous and weird) and Kristen Wiig (low-key and weirder) are hilarious as the married managers of the park. Plentiful needle drops include several from Lou Reed/Velvet Undergound, including, ahem, “Shed a Light on Love”; original compositions on the soundtrack by Yo La Tengo.

82/100