Adventureland

ADVENTURELAND: One of the most common rites of passage as a director is restaging your own rites of passage as a young-adult. Writer / director Greg Mottola takes us on a ride down his own memory lane as an ambitious post-grad who’s forced to take a summer job at a local amusement park. The games and rides are all run by equally unenthusiastic twenty-somethings living at home with Mom and Dad while they develop an unspoken familial bond toiling in their mutual misery. Except James (Jesse Eisenberg), who finds the girl of his dreams (Kristen Stewart) while handing out giant-ass Pandas. Adventureland shares vague similarities with Mottola’s previous hit, Superbad, in the sense that it the story is deceptively aimless. There are brief bursts of comedy, mostly from Adventureland onwer-operators Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, but by and large Mottola’s not interested in making anyone laugh this time around. Like its alt-retro soundtrack, Adventureland doesn’t really fall into an easy category (other than Sundance-material, where the film made its premiere in 2009) and doesn’t care if you “get it.” It’s a mix-tape of memories that stirs up emotions no matter what era you hail from. The Blu-ray sports several exclusive extras including Adventureland training videos and in-character spoofs, plus deleted scene and commentary along with an extra digital copy.