Just Like Heaven

As far as summers go, the summer of 1987 stands out as one of my finest. I was relatively fresh out of the womb, sporting a few strands of hair, and still twelve years away from the wonders of puberty.

Life in the stroller was grand.

Greg Mottola's Adventureland, set in that wonderful summer of 1987, continues the line of coming-of-age films focused on sex, drugs, and endless pursuit of summer cash. Revolving around a Pittsburgh theme park, Adventureland employs several college educated wanderlusts set on making enough money to continue school and explore everything from Russian literature to the pursuit of underaged girls.

Adventureland has a touch that Superbad, the movie this will inevitably be compared to, doesn't. The language is certainly there. The sex is certainly there. The drinking and smoking runs rampant. But what Superbad lacked, and what Adventureland succeeds with is a dose of reality. Familes suffer financially. Husbands are cheating on wives. Couches have plastic covers. And while Mottola's writing displays a terrific sense of humor and quote-worthy one-liners, he isn't afraid to tackle more than simply the pursuit of sex and drugs. This isn't American Pie, but it certainly isn't The English Patient either.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Michael Cera better than Michael Cera plays Michael Cera. Kristen Stewart sheds the gloom and cardboard appearance she sported in Twilight, playing that girl who you sat next to in high school speech and talked about bands like Radiohead and Pearl Jam. Except in this case, we're treated to Crowded House and The Cure. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are great as the park's bosses, and Ryan Reynolds pulls off an unfamiliar role fairly well. The supporting cast, especially Martin Starr and Matt Bush, bring out the best in Jesse Eisenberg's Brennan. Margarita Levieva rounds out the rest of the park's regulars as the sex pot that everyone met during one of those summers, playing the role of the seductress to perfection.

Adventureland is something worth seeing, if only for the reminder of these college summers. These summers, which were blessed with terrible, minimum wage jobs and horrible weekend hours, are unreplaceable. Whether it was the co-workers you slept with in the stcokroom or the kids that pushed you around the store in a cart during your shift, Adventureland is a wonderful reminder of just how great something as bland as working retail could be.