Operation Screenshot (Films of the 2000s): Greg Mottola's Adventureland (2009)

"They were gonna meet on a Rocky Mountain street
Two bashful hearts beat in advance
Their hands were gonna sweat, It was all set
She ain't showed up yet, still a good chance

It's a love untold

Checking on her face, checks his sleeve for his ace
And both just in case wear clean underwear
Games would be played excuses would be made
The stupid things they said, in their prayers

Oh about a love untold

Soft hands slowly move across the blank white page
Thinking of words for my silent lips and fingers to obey

They were gonna meet on a crummy little street
It never came to be I'm told
Does anyone recall the saddest love of all
The one that lets you fall with nothing to hold

Just another love untold"

-Paul Westerberg-

Adventureland (The Ballad of El Goodo)

Mike Connell can’t remember the first time he told his Lou Reed story. What’s even worse is that he can’t even remember at this point how much of it is bullshit. He saw Lou Reed once, he knows that but he’d be hard pressed to recall the exact circumstances. All he knows is that for the past ten years he’s been telling this story about jamming with Lou Reed one night, and for ten years the story has been landing him chicks. Lately though he’s been feeling like he’s wearing down, as he’s starting to realize that a lot of the dreams he had are becoming as false as that story about jamming with Lou Reed that night so many years ago. Perhaps it all stems from Em, the girl he works with at Adventureland that he has been sneaking out with behind his wife’s back for the past year or so. Em’s different from those other girls, she’s becoming more attached and it’s starting to scare Mike who is looking to become more and more dis-attached from the life he has made for himself.

Em, or Emily has her father calls her when he is pissed, has been running on empty since her mom died of cancer two years ago. She’s sleeping with a repairman from Adventureland whose both married and about ten years her senior. He jammed with Lou Reed though, and he’s cuter than most of the guys she knows from school so maybe it’s not all bad. Lately though, Em can’t concentrate and she can’t stop thinking about her mom, although she wouldn’t want any of her friends to know that. Her bitch of a stepmother isn’t helping matters either, and as of late all she wants to do is sit in her room and play her Big Star and Jesus and Mary Chain records. Part of her wants summer to be over so she can return to New York and college, but another part of her is just scared beyond all words…plus she’s met another guy named James at Adventureland that makes her feel things inside that she hasn’t felt since her mom died.

James Brennan doesn’t have any scientific proof of it, but he suspects that he might very well be the world’s biggest fuck up. He’s just managed to graduate college with a degree he’ll never really be able to use and, worse yet, he’s still a virgin. His European Trip graduation gift trip has fallen through as well, cause his dad has just got demoted at work, and now he’s stuck for the summer working at the local amusement park Adventureland. Things could be worse though as he’s got a bag of grass to last the summer, and he’s really getting a kick out of the Henry Miller book that he is so engrossed in. Even better are some of the friends he has made at the park like Connell, the repair guy who jammed with Lou Reed back in the day and especially Em, the coolest girl he has ever met. He suspects that Em is the kind of girl that Alex Chilton wrote “September Gurls” for, and he finds the song playing in his head every time he looks at her.



These are just three characters in Greg Mottola’s lovely, heartfelt and downright stunning Adventureland, the kind of American youth film that only comes along every decade or so. This is just Mottola’s third feature film, after the terrific Daytrippers and very winning Superbad, and with it he confirms himself as one of the major new voices in American cinema. Adventureland is as honest as a worn out groove on a vintage Velvet Underground album, and as exciting as finding a sealed copy of Big Star’s second LP in a record store’s discount bin.
Set in 1987 and mixing humor with real human emotion the way few films can or even dare to, Adventureland is among the most perfect American films of the decade. A daring and ambitious time capsule that lays to waste most films of late that have attempted to center on the frustrations and triumphs that go hand in hand with being young. Working from a pitch perfect script from his own pen, Mottola’s film is the kind of work that I dream about but one that rarely actually manifests itself. From the opening blast of The Replacement’s legendary “Bastards of Young” to the final breathtaking shot of Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart that instantly takes its place among the great closing moments in any film in recent memory, Adventureland doesn’t make a wrong turn. It’s warm, funny, touching and contains the kind of devastating emotional honesty that is becoming more and more of a rare commodity these days, in film and life.



Adventureland is a fully loaded production. Working with Mottola’s pitch perfect script is one of the best ensemble casts imaginable. Jesse Eisenberg delivers one of the great performances essaying awkward youth as James and Kristen Stewart is simply magical as Em, the perfect young love who feels like she is on the edge of an emotional breakdown at any moment. Watching Stewart I was reminded of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s turn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and I can’t think of a higher compliment than that. Extremely talented and undervalued Ryan Reynolds delivers a wise, knowing and undeniably sympathetic turn as Connell. The entire supporting cast is also incredible, with everyone managing to make even the smallest characters fully realized three-dimensional people.
The behind the scenes crew Mottola has assembled does extremely solid work as well. Anne McCabe’s editing keeps the film moving along at a brisk pace, but it manages to not be cut too tight to spoil the feeling of immobility so many of the characters are feeling. Kudos also to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s wonderful costume designer Melissa Toth, who does a fantastic job of capturing 1987 without turning it into the punch line so many other designers would. Adventureland is an extremely smart and well thought out film, and Mottola has chosen the perfect people to help him realize his unique and ambitious vision.



I was extremely moved by Greg Mottola’s Adventureland. It is one of the first films that I know of that really captures the time when I was a teenager. The eighties are an easy time to make fun of, Mottola’s film reminds us that some of us could already see the ridiculousness in much of it, but we knew there were some sublime little corners to gravitate towards as well. Adventureland travels to both and nails each with perfection and ease. This is the first film I have seen about the period where I can really say, I knew those kids…I was one of those kids.



Adventureland is being advertised as a straight comedy, and I have a feeling there might be some disappointed folks leaving theaters after seeing it. I also suspect that it might take a bit of time for this film to catch on, but trust me it is a classic. Adventureland is a really special film, and it’s the best film of its kind since Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused more than fifteen years ago.
Alex Chilton and Chris Bell wrote a song called "The Ballad of El Goodo" in 1972 for the peerless first Big Star album. The song has played in my head as images from Adventureland replay in my mind, with these lyrics being particularly resonate:

"There's people around who tell you that they know
And places where they send you, and it's easy to go.
They'll zip you up and dress you down and stand you in a row
But you know you don't have to, you can just say "no".

I've been built up and trusted, broke down and busted
But they'll get theirs and we will get ours if you can
Just-a hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on."


Thanks to Greg Mottola for making a film that dares to break away from an increasingly dull and compliant pack. Most of the films you will see this year will lie to you, Adventureland doesn't and for this reason among many others it should be celebrated.

First-Time Viewings (March, 2011)

March turned out to be a pretty active film-watching month for me. Here are my quick thoughts on the older and newer films that I caught up with for the first time.

30 is a Dangerous Age Cynthia ***1/2
Following the incredible Bedazzled was no easy challenge, but Dudley Moore gave it his all with 30 is a Dangerous Age Cynthia, a film that also features Moore's own script and score. Suzy Kendall co-stars and, while it isn’t quite the film Bedazzled is, 30 is a Dangerous Age Cynthia is a lot of fun and I am grateful to TCM for the recent airing, as it is currently not out on disc.

Bed of Roses (1933) ***
Bed of Roses is a short but provocative pre-code film from the underrated Gregory LaCava starring an absolutely wonderful Constance Bennett. The dialogue is smart and risqué and Bennett controls every frame of the film, but the film ultimately falls short of LaCava’s greatest works, like My Man Godfrey.

Black Legion ***1/2
A fascinating and thought provoking film from director Archie Mayo, Black Legion is mostly remembered for giving an early leading role to Humphrey Bogart. What really made the film stand out though is how topical it felt as its plot foreshadows many nutjob conservative extremist groups that are active today, especially the paranoid tea-bagging movement.

Blue Magic ***
Candida Royalle scripted and starred in this fun adult-film from the seventies, which teams the striking beauty up with icons Veronica Hart and Samantha Fox among others. The film, which features some striking art direction and production design, is most notable for Royalle’s snappy and witty dialogue, which wouldn’t have been out of place in a classic Screwball comedy. My write-up is over at Harry Moseby Confidential for those interested.



Bombshell ****1/2
A hilarious and smashing Jean Harlow film which serves as a reminder as to why she is still so missed so many decades after her tragic death at the age of 26.

Box (Miike Takashi) ****
Miike’s eerie contribution to the Three Extremes anthology film is a subtle and extremely disquieting work that perhaps isn’t as outrageous as some of his more well-known films but is still as unsettling.

Bronson ****
Nicolas Winding Refn’s A Clockwork Orange homage would have been an intriguing film regardless of who was cast as its title character, but Tom Hardy’s astonishing performance transforms it into a great work.

Cyrus ****1/2
A wonderful film that takes its place as one of the most overlooked of 2010, Cyrus is a funny and moving work featuring a trio of truly excellent performances from John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill.



Eyewitness *1/2
An exceptionally talented cast, which includes William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, James Woods and Morgan Freeman, is absolutely wasted in this lame and terribly plotted film from the usually more reliable British director Peter Yates.

Funeral Home ***
A fairly well-done Canadian horror film from the early eighties that is mostly memorable for providing the terrific Lesleh Donaldson (Happy Birthday to Me, Curtains) with one of her biggest roles. The print I saw came from a horrible looking public domain version, and I suspect my opinion would be higher if I could find a good print of the film.

I Spit on Your Grave (2010) ***
I have always had mixed feeling about the original I Spit on Your Grave and I have reservations about the remake as well, specifically director Steven Monroe's bizarre choice to switch the point of view halfway through the film. Like the original though, it is hard to shake the film and the performance of Sarah Butler is truly impressive.

ItalianAmerican ****
I filled a gap in my Martin Scorsese collection thanks to TCM’s recent airing of this rare documentary he made in the mid-seventies focusing on his always entertaining and fascinating parents. ItalianAmerican is funny and very loving and is a key, if little known, entry in Scorsese’s incomparable filmography.

Nowhere Boy ****1/2
Now this is how you make a rock-documentary. With its smashing lead performance by Aaron Johnson, sensitive direction from Sam-Taylor Wood and moving score from Goldfrapp, Nowhere Boy probably tells us more about what really made John Lennon the troubled genius that he was more than any other film about The Beatles that has ever been attempted. A tremendous work.

R.P.M. *
A patronizing look at the sixties ‘counterculture’ from director Stanley Kramer, R.P.M. is a terribly inept and hopelessly out of touch work that wastes the considerable talents of Anthony Quinn and Ann-Margret. An atrocious film that is as insulting as it is poorly made.

Sandcastles ***
Now here’s a real oddity. The marvelous Bonnie Bedelia and a young Jan-Michael Vincent co-star in this strange shot on video Canadian ghost-story from the early seventies. This made for TV movie has a real sappy harlequin streak running throughout but Bedelia is truly touching in it and I quite enjoyed it.

She's Out of My League **1/2
For the first half of the film She’s Out of My League is a fitfully funny and sweet romantic comedy but it seriously runs run out of steam in the second. The always reliable Jay Baruchel keeps it watchable but it is finally a missed opportunity at making what could have been a really funny film.

Superman Returns ****
I had put off watching this big-budget return of the Man of Steel from a few years back due to my love of the Christopher Reeve series from my childhood but, at the urging of my wife, I sat down and watched this recently and was really pleasantly surprised. It’s a rousing film with a great cast, I particularly admired Kate Bosworth’s take on Lois Lane, and it’s a shame that Warner Brothers’ nixed the sequels.

The Best of Times **
A perfect example of a movie that doesn’t know what it wants to be, The Best of Times teeters between comedy and drama and ultimately just comes out annoying. Made nearly watchable by the always-engaging Kurt Russell, The Best of Times eventually collapses under the weight of one of Robin Williams’ most grating performances.

The Kids Are All Right ****1/2
Another great film from 2010, along with works like Black Swan, The Fighter and The Social Network, that we can look back on someday and say “I can’t believe that The King’s Speech won best picture over that.”



The Nickel Ride ***
A solid if not totally convincing story of an aging gangster, played wonderfully by Jason Miller, at the end of his line. Eric Roth’s script is sharp but I can’t help but think the film would have been better with someone besides Robert Mulligan, who I typically like, was in the director’s chair.

The Yellow Handkerchief ***1/2
A beautifully acted, the performances from William Hurt and Kristen Stewart are both particularly special, road-film that could have been even better if director had figured out how to tell his story without relying so heavily on voiceovers and flashbacks.

They Call Him Cemetery *1/2
A dreadfully slow Italian Western from director Guliano Carnimeo (Anthony Ascott), who made the wonderful The Case of the Bloody Iris around the same time. Carnimeo handled a number of solid Italian Westerns in the sixties and seventies but he just seems on auto-pilot here. Also known as A Bullet for a Stranger.

Tony Manero *****
My thoughts on this remarkable film can be read here.



Twilight ***1/2
Twilight: Eclipse ***1/2
Twilight: New Moon ***
So my admiration and love for Kristen Stewart got the best of me and I finally sat down and watched the Twilight movies in March. I have to say that I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed them especially the first and third films, which I thought both worked as quite captivating romances and thrillers. While I am bothered by some of the CGI, and I wish they were harder in nature, I was really taken with the films and am not ashamed to admit it. The Twilight films are easy to pick on but think about most of the junk (in film and music) being marketed towards teenagers today and these really stand out.

Two in the Wave ****1/2
A moving documentary on the friendship and collaborative relationship between Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut that might not tell hardcore fans much they don’t know, but all the wonderful archival footage makes the Two in the Wave indispensable.

Visions **1/2
An okay film from adult auteur Chuck Vincent, starring Wade Nichols, Susan McBain and the wonderful Sharon Mitchell, Visions isn’t among Vincent’s great works but it’s an interesting attempt at making an almost dialogue free avant-garde adult picture. I will be writing on this film soon over at Harry Moseby Confidential.

2011 Films:

Battle: Los Angeles ***
Roger Ebert, in an amazingly condescending and mean-spirited review, called anyone who might enjoy Battle Los Angeles an ‘idiot’. Well, I did quite enjoy Battle: Los Angeles and, yes, I am quite fine with someone like Roger Ebert considering me an idiot. Battle Los Angeles’ biggest fault lies in its editing, as the film would have been much stronger with twenty or thirty minutes cut out. Still, this is an enjoyable apocalyptic science fiction film, which thematically can be open to several different interpretations, and Ebert’s elitist and pompous piece serves as a reminder that this is a man who has routinely picked on genre films and filmmakers throughout his career like a bitter schoolyard bully.

Hall Pass *1/2
For a long-time Farrelly Brothers fan like myself, Hall Pass was a truly depressing experience. Two valiant efforts from Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate make the film almost watchable but otherwise this is easily the worst film the makers of the Moon in the Gutter favorite There’s Something About Mary have ever released.

Mildred Pierce ****1/2
Of course, this rating is only based on the first two-parts of Mildred Pierce, as the rest premiere in April, but so far I think this is Todd Hayne’s finest moment since Safe well over a decade and a half ago.

Red Riding Hood **1/2
Yes, the CGI sucks and yes some of the performances are lacking, but for the most part I enjoyed Catherine Hardwick’s dazzling looking new film. While Red Riding Hood mostly just succeeds as a visual treat I did admire Hardwick’s frenetic camera work that made the film both dreamy and disorienting.



Sucker Punch ***1/2
Every few years or so a film will come down the line that will have people screaming about the ‘the death of cinema’. Here’s the thing though. Art doesn’t die, it might change and it might go into a different direction but it continues. People screaming about how Zack Snyder’s newest film signals the death of cinema are really speaking out against something that challenges their own perceived 'idea' of cinema. Frankly there is no difference in them and the folks who decades ago complained that talkies ruined film. Sucker Punch is a vibrant and challenging work that I promise will seem much better when we get a chance to see Snyder’s original Hard-R directors cut on Blu-Ray and DVD.
I’ll save my thoughts on it till then but there is a LOT to admire in this work.

31 Performances Ripe for Rediscovery (21) Kristen Stewart in ADVENTURELAND (WITH A SPECIAL GUEST CONTRIBUTION FROM ERICH KUERSTEN)

When I first wrote about Adventureland back in the spring of 2009 I compared Kristen Stewart's remarkable performance in it to Jennifer Jason Leigh's work in Fast Times in Ridgemont High (1982).  Like Leigh, Stewart managed to capture both the fragility and exuberance of youth in a performance of startling depth and emotion, two qualities that Stewart's many critics claim that are lacking from her work...a fact that makes me think that I have been watching someone else's filmography play out in front of me.  

There probably isn't a more polarizing young American actress in cinema today than Kristen Stewart.  For those, like myself, who have followed and greatly admired her work since seeing Panic Room a decade ago we see an incredibly original and distinct young talent who has been able to slip into roles as varied as Bella Swan, Joan Jett and even Snow White.  Whether the film has called for romantic yearning, gritty realism or ferocious physicality, Stewart has been able to essay each with a sharp sense of authority and purpose.  To her many critics though, who can't seem to step away from their hatred of Twilight and the media's unbelievably sexist view of her personal life, she is a vacuum and an emotionless void without a ounce of talent...again have we been watching a different filmography play out this past decade?

While Bella Swan remains the chief role that 22 year old Kristen Stewart is known for it is Adventureland's Em Lewin than has the biggest emotional pull for me.  Perhaps because in some ways it tells my own story, I remain totally perplexed by anyone who isn't at least the slightest bit moved by Greg Mottola's heartfelt coming of age story and specifically Stewart's work as Em.  As Jesse Eisenberg's character's first true-love, Stewart is unbelievably captivating, moving and unforgettable...like the well-worn grooves of the Big Star, Replacements and Velvet Underground albums that Em keeps in her room. 

I originally wasn't going to feature any performances from the past several years on this list (which mostly covers roughly the late sixties up to the late nineties) but when I recently read Erich Kuersten's incredibly eloquent and passionate defense of Kristen Stewart (linked below) at his Acidemic I knew that I had to make an exception and include a more recent performance.  Recognizing that Erich and I shared the same admiration for Stewart, and the same perplexed attitude towards her harshest critics, I invited him to submit a  few thoughts for this series.  Erich kindly put together this incredibly spot-on and moving section from his recent piece on Stewart for Moon in the Gutter and I am very excited to present it here.  Do yourself a favor and be sure to visit Acidemic and read his original complete piece on Kristen Stewart, which is one of the most insightful, thoughtful and necessary cinema articles I have read in quite some time.  

-Jeremy Richey, 2012-

Erich Kuersten on Kristen Stewart, edited for Moon in the Gutter from his incredible piece "Kristen Stewart in the Snow With Poison", which can be read here at Acidemic.

"In playing young, vulnerable, awkwardly beautiful women, Kristen Stewart draws continual fire from critics and Twilight fans alike. It's not her looks they object to, but the direction in which she herself looks outward from the screen and weighs and judges and forgives the hearts of those watching, and those who think themselves impure, beyond saving, recoil from her absolving gaze. They are expecting perhaps a girl who will wince and smooth her hair back when they leer at her, a shy dove on display. Instead she's disheveled and pale and her body is never put on display for the camera, at least not the leering way the shirtless bodies of her male co-stars are. It's the reverse of the usual dichotomy.

But that forgiving tenderness in her eyes for even the ugly toads is a rare thing, it's what Stewart shares with Marilyn Monroe. Both of them love, or at least 'feel sorry for' the creatures most of us have cast off. MM felt compassion for the Creature from the Black Lagoon in Seven Year Itch, and didn't even mind flirting with Tom Ewell if it got her some air conditioning. Hey, princesses have kissed worse frogs for far less, and that's what Stewart as Bella provides, she is the princess who sees the beauty in the beast a priori to getting to know him. She's Julia Adams choosing the creature over Richard Carlson. Our pitchfork and torch hands tremble with the instinctual desire to burn her at the stake for this transgression. When her lip trembles and her eyes cross looking up at her current love object, waiting for that slow kiss, it becomes a delirious swooning moment perfect for a Rohmer film, but in the US, this kind of liberated outward gazer--the woman daring to see instead of just being seen --is an unforgivable offense."