I left "Adventureland" with a sense of belonging and that everything would be fine. The film was able to capture exactly how I felt and gave me characters to identify with.
On the surface it is about how James Brennan, played by Jesse Eisenberg, works at a theme park to earn money to pay for graduate school. His literary degree is wasted as he spends his days cleaning up puke and doing the work of "pathetic lazy morons" as his friend Joel, played by Martin Starr, describes the job.
But "Adventureland" was more than a demeaning summer job. It took hold of all the struggles and the confusions that our generation is dealing with right now and made it into a honest observation of the frightening realization that childhood is over. It showed our next segment of life, the final step before taking the plunge into the dark abyss of the "real world."
The most striking part of the movie was James' relationship with his parents. Eisenberg does an excellent job showing the feeling of disconnect. His parents, who were very encouraging of James' ambitions, began back pedaling and advising him to be more practical when his dad received a paycut.
In addition to Eisenberg's spot on performance of the intelligent sensitive type, Kristin Stewart blew me away as Em, the malcontent bombshell dealing with the recent loss of her mother. The relationships that she pursues in attempt to cope leave her more alone and confused.
Not only was "Adventureland" an authentic coming of age film, its soundtrack was superb. When I heard the opening track, "Bastards of Young" by the Replacements, I knew I was in for a real musical treat, but little did I know that they had the mixtapes of my childhood.
When Jesus and the Mary Chain came on in the background, I actually looked around the theater to see if anyone was as stoked as I was.
