For me, 2009's ADVENTURELAND has one big headline...."What? Kristen Stewart can ACT???"
This is a very funny and touching comedy about 1987 high school graduate James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg, terrific) who has his summer European trip mapped out in prep for a fall move to school in NYC.
His parents finances and a bad night of driving force him to rethink his plan and spend the summer working at a fifth rate amusement park called Adventureland.
The people he meets there, from hilarious scene stealers Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig as park owners Bobby and Paulette, park maintenance man and stud Mike Connell (in a nice, subtle performance from Ryan Reynolds) and quiet loner Joel (Martin Starr) all impact his summer, but none more than beautiful Em.
I've always found Kristin Stewart annoyingly moody and unhappy in appearances on talk shows etc and have promised myself to avoid all things Twilight on principle, so I was shocked and really pleasantly surprised by how great she is as Em.
The film captures 1987 with plenty of great music and details from the era and in the hands of director Greg Mottola (Superbad) and delivers tons of laughs and some nice character development too. Eisenberg and Stewart are both terrific.
Kristen Stewart can act. WHO KNEW?
Adventureland gets an A.
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