Adventureland

I am a sucker for indie coming of age movies. I am a sucker for the 1980s. I am a sucker for amusement parks. My favorite amusement park is Kennywood (where this movie was shot). So how could I not love this movie? It was a sure winner. Then if you put Whitesnake, The Cure & The Outfield on the same soundtrack, I am in heaven.

Of course I loved this movie. You could tell they wanted Michael Cera to play the lead, but he has likely moved on to greener pastures so they got Jesse Eisenberg to do it. The whole time you think it's being played by Michael Cera's brother. I suppose it's hard to get someone to pull off the good boy who's slightly obsessive, brooding, smart but naive. Jesse did a good job.

I must say that I'm not a Twilight fan. I just don't get the hype. Kristen Stewart is in this movie in her pre-Twilight days. She did okay.

As for plot, there's not a whole lot of it. Those indie coming of age movies don't really have a lot of plot - it's more like lots of spewing angst. But I like it just fine.

My favorite parts had to be when they were showing my favorite amusement park in the whole wide world that I haven't been to in 18 years. I figured out it was filmed at Kennywood from a faraway angle as it looked on to half a ride. That is how much I love Kennywood that I can identify a ride I haven't been on in 18 years from a weird angle. They had a scene at the Potato Patch (world famous cheese fries but no cheese fries in the shot) with the Thunderbolt in the background. Memories...

Teen angst + amusement park = fun summer

Since I have all these biases going into the movie, I can't give a recommendation. You either love this type of movie or you don't. I'm definitely in the LOVE category!