Adventureland
I saw Adventureland on Friday with kohai_tiger and malinandrolo. Here's a spoiler-free mini-review!
All in all, Adventureland is a pretty well-told coming-of-age story. Directed by the guy responsible for Superbad, I think that the film is actually more similar to Juno in terms of mood and style (wherein it's a funny movie that's telling a serious story).
There's a lot of nostalgic, late-80s charm to be had (the soundtrack really helps nail it). I also really appreciated that it's a story about young adults that takes place just post-college, to set it apart from the plethora of stories that all seem to take place in either college itself or in high school; early 20s (and the onset of 'real-world' adulthood) is such a formative, defining time in most people's lives, and I think it's a shame that more movies and stories don't zero in on that.
Lots of laugh-out-loud moments (I won't ruin them here), but again, nothing that's so goofy that the actual plot of the film suffers for it. I was surprised by how hard I was hit by some parts of the story, actually (some of them maybe hit a bit close to home), and in the end, I came away very satisfied.
In short: if you like movies that are both funny and touching (y'know, like Juno), give Adventureland a shot. You'll probably like it.
All in all, Adventureland is a pretty well-told coming-of-age story. Directed by the guy responsible for Superbad, I think that the film is actually more similar to Juno in terms of mood and style (wherein it's a funny movie that's telling a serious story).
There's a lot of nostalgic, late-80s charm to be had (the soundtrack really helps nail it). I also really appreciated that it's a story about young adults that takes place just post-college, to set it apart from the plethora of stories that all seem to take place in either college itself or in high school; early 20s (and the onset of 'real-world' adulthood) is such a formative, defining time in most people's lives, and I think it's a shame that more movies and stories don't zero in on that.
Lots of laugh-out-loud moments (I won't ruin them here), but again, nothing that's so goofy that the actual plot of the film suffers for it. I was surprised by how hard I was hit by some parts of the story, actually (some of them maybe hit a bit close to home), and in the end, I came away very satisfied.
In short: if you like movies that are both funny and touching (y'know, like Juno), give Adventureland a shot. You'll probably like it.