22
Sep/16

BAD REPUTATION — SPOTLIGHT ON KRISTEN STEWART: ADVENTURELAND

22
Sep/16
Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart are in the mood for some summer fun in ADVENTURELAND

Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart are in the mood for some summer fun in ADVENTURELAND

ADVENTURELAND (Greg Mottola, 2009)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Saturday, September 24, 2:00 & 7:00, and Sunday, September 25, 4:40 & 9:40
Series runs September 23-27
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
adventurelandthefilm.com

When we were kids, it was always a treat when our parents packed us in the car and took us to Adventureland, a small amusement park in Farmingdale, Long Island. It wasn’t quite the same treat for writer-director Greg Mottola, who documents one summer he spent working as a carny there in the sweet coming-of-age comedy Adventureland, an underappreciated gem from last decade. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Mottola’s alter ego, James Brennan, a college grad in 1987 who is planning on traveling through Europe before starting grad school at Columbia — until his parents take a serious financial hit, forcing him to spend the summer working at the local amusement park in Pittsburgh called Adventureland. (Mottola had wanted to shoot the film in the actual Long Island location but found that the current state of Adventureland was too upscale compared to the one he remembers, so he found a more suitable cinematic park.) James is a hyperintellectual virgin who is waiting for true love, and he thinks he might have found it in fellow carny Em Lewin (Kristen Stewart). However, he doesn’t know that Em is also a booty call for the older Mike Connell (Ryan Reynolds), the hot maintenance man whose legendary claim to fame is that he once jammed with Lou Reed. Meanwhile, the amusement park’s hot-to-trot Lisa P. (Margarita Levieva) has returned, and she might be considering trying out a nice guy like James instead of her usual tough dudes.

Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig sort of run things at low-rent amusement park

Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig sort of run things at low-rent amusement park

Adventureland is a very funny, emotionally honest look at growing up faster than one imagined, filled with believable characters and situations in a genre that is often wrought with hyperbole. (Mottola is another member of Judd Apatow’s inner circle, having directed episodes of the underrated Undeclared and directed and cowrote, with Seth Rogen, the overrated Superbad; prior to that, he wrote and directed the overrated 1999 indie hit The Daytrippers.) Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale, The Social Network) and Stewart (Into the Wild, Twilight) are magnetic together, conveying their parts with heartfelt emotion; although Eisenberg is seven years older than Stewart in real life — she was born in 1990, after the film takes place — Stewart displays an intelligence beyond her years. The excellent supporting cast features SNLers Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the park’s crazy owners; Freaks & Geeks’ Martin Starr as James’s best friend, the Russian-lit-obsessed, pipe-smoking Joel; and Matt Bush as Frigo, who never misses a chance to punch James in the nuts. Mottola sets his compelling story to an awesome soundtrack that includes killer tunes by the Replacements, Husker Du, Big Star, the Cure, Judas Priest, and plenty of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground (as well as a Foreigner tribute band and Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus”). Adventureland is screening September 24 & 25 in the BAMcinématek series “Bad Reputation: Spotlight on Kristen Stewart,” a five-day, five-film tribute to the L.A.-born actress who, at the age of twenty-six, has already appeared in nearly three dozen films. The mini-festival also includes David Fincher’s Panic Room, Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight, Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways (in which Stewart plays Joan Jett!), and Olivier Assayas’s The Clouds of Sils Maria, for which she won a French César Award for Best Supporting Actress