November 2010 Archives

After the New Hollywood movement spent the '60s and '70s trying to culturally liberate us, it feels like we've reverted back to the Dark Ages. Cinema is as bland, idiotic and commercialised now as it was in the 1950s, with producers as clueless to our needs as they were back then. The only difference is producers today don't seem to care.

In the Summer of 1987, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) graduates from College with his sights set on a road trip across Europe and a place at New York's prestigious Columbia University. However, difficulties arise when James' parents run into money troubles - in place of a once-in-a-lifetime European journey, James must spend his Summer working at Adventureland, a theme park in his home town of Pittsburgh. While there, he befriends his oft-eccentric fellow workers, including the pipe-smoking Joel (Martin Starr), aspiring rock star and maintenance guy Connell (Ryan Reynolds) and the troublesome Em (Kristen Stewart).