Adventureland (2009)

Set in 1987 amid a world plagued by “Rock Me Amadeus,” the stoner comedy “Adventureland” is a small film that focuses on the rites of passage for many young twenty-somethings: summer jobs, sex, pot, crashing the car, fighting with you parents. (I said most, not me.) Jesse Eisenberg is such a youth, out of college with grad school on the horizon, he’s forced to take a job at a Pittsburgh theme park after his father’s job crumbles. Adventureland is full of dorks, oddballs, the maintenance guy who sells tall tales of coolness (Ryan Reynolds) and the truly cool, truly messed up girl (Kristen Stewart). The comedy and some drama come from these people stumbling and finding their way toward adulthood and love. The movie excels at not making (all) of the adults idiots, but just older people capable of making equally bad decisions. The best scene has our hero’s mom busting him for having booze in the car, when the bottle belongs to his father. Nothing is said between father and son. But the shared look, the acceptance of both men, faults and all, is a far step above most any entire film in this often crude genre. B+