Adventureland

Adventureland is a feel-good movie. There are no surprises here. Every character can be pigeon holed in 5 seconds and their part in the plot is inevitably obvious, as is the plot itself. It is American college kids on their summer break in 1987 who are obsessed with sex (and love) as seen through the rosiest of rose-tinted spectacles. Even the cinematography is done in warm Kodak style colours. It feels like a movie that you have seen before. But unashamedly that is what director Greg Mattola is aiming to do, to make you feel comfortable. Wall-to-wall cliches and tropes. This is movie comfort food.

A jaded cynic would complain that everyone is white and middle class or aspiring middle class (and are disproportionately Catholic and Jewish). They would also complain that the film doesn't challenge its audience, blah blah. Hopefully such people are wise enough to skip this film and go to something high brow or obscure instead.

I enjoyed this film. All the actors seemed to throw themselves into their parts and are generally given good dialogue especially Bobby the boss of the adventure park, who is perhaps the one surprise of the film as he isn't as lame as his character could have been. After many of the more serious and depressing films in the festival I was in the mood for some cinematic comfort food.

Check the trailer to see if it suits your palette.

Ian's rating 3.5/5