As the prospect of navigating postgraduate life looms ever closer, it’s somewhat reassuring to know the challenges it holds aren’t just a product of the 21st century.
Greg Mottola’s Adventureland offers an original coming-of-age story, which follows a misfit group of coworkers at an ’80s amusement park. Jesse Eisenberg is typecast as the quintessential nerd, stuttering, nodding and averting his gaze throughout a bildungsroman that’s not only tolerable, but surprisingly good.
Forced into minimum-wage labor at Adventureland games to pay for graduate school, Eisenberg’s plight mirrors the fate of many recent college alumni — overeducated but underqualified in an oversaturated job market. As an Adventureland coworker states, “We are doing the work of pathetic, lazy morons.”
It’s a relatable sentiment. While people shouldn’t think themselves above taking a minimum-wage job, frustration is certainly a natural reaction when confronted with work that doesn’t reflect their intended career paths.
Unfortunately, our plans rarely work out as we anticipate, a realization that’s simply a part of growing up. Eisenberg’s coming-of-age may come a little late; nonetheless, it effectively parallels our own.
The film’s depiction of the often-messy nature of young-adult relationships proves accurate as well. Eisenberg’s unflinching lack of cool buoys his awkward pursuit of conflicted coworker Kristen Stewart, who turns in a startlingly bearable performance in Twilight’s ruinous wake. The chemistry’s there, and Mottola’s natural dialogue verges on brilliance.
Adventureland doesn’t exactly leave audiences rolling in the aisles, but its charm and unpretentious insights prove far more satisfying than the tired gags and cheap punch lines of many of its peers. For 20-somethings on the brink of entering the real world, it’s a comforting reminder that it’s OK not to have everything figured out.
[ READ MORE: LIST: Movies you need to see before graduating ]
