ADVENTURELAND

Pittsburgh.  The 80s.  An amusement park.  And, yes, a mix tape (although it is much more marginal as compared to its role in Nick & Norah; but used for the same purpose – a way to provide insight into the psyche of its maker at the same time birthing wonderful music in the world around).  I am talking of Adventureland, a truly rhapsodic, nostalgiac gem of a movie.  It is about a college graduate whose post-graduate dreams of a summer trip to Europe are derailed by his father’s job loss.  And his grad school tuition hangs in the balance as well unless he can earn enough money during the summer.  Majoring in comparative literature gets him nowhere in a job search in the real world so he ends up working in the artificial fantasy land that is the amusement park. 

Of course, there is a love story involved, and one of the protagonists is the utterly sublime Kristen Stewart, she of Twilight fame.  It is nothing more and nothing less than the tale of a wispy summer; a movie where the ride obscures the destination.  The characters are bold, unique, vulnerable; reflecting their decade.  The artful writing translated into evocative dialogues and scored by the soundtrack of an era.  Every once in a while a truly special movie comes along that makes you feel more complete than before you watched it.  Adventureland is such a movie.