Review: Adventureland

       Kristen Stewart cheats on her boyfriend with a married man. I'm not talking about recent news from the gossip pages, I'm talking about a major plot point of the 2009 film Adventureland. Going into the movie, I wasn't aware of the film's renewed relevance, and I was stunned by the film's eerily accurate depiction of events in Ms. Stewarts life that wouldn't happen for another three years. The film also makes some important points that many people are looking past in light of this recent scandal. While the film acknowledges what Kristen Stewart did was shitty, it doesn't make her out to be the bad guy. Instead the Ryan Reynolds, the married man in question, is portrayed as the villain. He is, after all, the one who is married and is just as responsible. The movies asks why we are so quick to blame the woman, men can be just as terrible.

       Set in 1987, Jesse Eisenberg plays the main character James, a recent college graduate excited to take a summer off backpacking around Europe before beginning graduate school at Columbia. Unfortunately for James, his parents are dealing with some financial issues and can no longer afford to pay for his trip to Europe. Instead, James has to stay at home with his parents in Pittsburgh and needs to get a summer job in order to save up for grad school. Due to a lack of work experience, James can't manage to find a job anywhere other than at the nearby amusement park, the titular Adventureland. James works the midway, looking after one rigged game after the other, making sure that no one ever wins a Big Ass Panda. James coworkers are an eclectic mix of fellow twentysomethings. There's Joel (the always delightful Martin Starr) a nerdy Russian Lit. major, James's old high school friend Frigo, the owners Bobby and Paulette (Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig), the cool maintenance guy Connell (Reynolds) and the girl James falls for, a fellow games worker named Em (Stewart). James spends the summer with his coworkers, dealing with parkgoers, drinking, smoking weed, and listening to Falco's “Rock Me Amadeus” on an endless loop. James and Em bond quickly and begin to form a relationship, but things get tricky as the love triangle I mentioned earlier begins to be exposed.

       In terms of story, there's not a lot that's original here. It's your basic boy meets girl story with some zany characters set during the late 80s, imagine if the The Wedding Singer featured smarter, younger characters. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are lots of fun, Eisenberg is at his most Michael Cera-esque that was typical of him before his turn as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. The real surprise is Kristen Stewart, who has been made famous in her role as Bella in the Twilight movies, where she is given material that is below her level. Here she is a capable actress ready to handle some weighty issues. Even before we learn about all the troubles going on in Em's life, Stewart shows us that there are issues beneath the surface by making her somewhat vacant and reluctant to interact with other people. Instead of the vacant, wooden actress I've come to expect from her other performances, here she is the strongest actor in the cast, and I'm not putting anyone down by saying that.