Adventureland (2009)

All Critics (207) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (191) | Rotten (26) | DVD (21)

As a sweet-natured character comedy - and a subtle exercise in generic boundary-pushing - this is a real charmer.

September 11, 2009 Full Review

Tom Huddleston

Time Out

Top Critic

The story is semi-autobiographical, but has a gentler touch than his prior work on Superbad, and certainly relies less on slapstick episodes.

April 6, 2009 Full Review | Comments (2)

David Denby

New Yorker

Top Critic

Audiences expecting another dumb wallow will be startled, and I hope enlivened, by this movie's core of feeling.

April 6, 2009 Full Review

Peter Rainer

Christian Science Monitor

Top Critic

The youths of Superbad were a little bit younger, a little more likable, their dirty-virgin wit more hilarious [than in Adventureland].

April 3, 2009 Full Review | Comments (3)

Amy Biancolli

Houston Chronicle

Top Critic

Adventureland isn't as clever as Kicking, and not nearly as hilarious as Superbad, but it's still a sweet little memory ache, a Proustian cookie co-flavored with semiotics and Whitesnake.

April 3, 2009 Full Review

Kyle Smith

New York Post

Top Critic

Adventureland earns its edge-of-adulthood sweetness and has characters with real hearts under their goofy T-shirts.

April 3, 2009 Full Review

Joe Neumaier

New York Daily News

Top Critic

The messages -- about silver linings in lousy jobs, the collision of hormones and heartstrings, and the adventure of discovering who you really are and what you really want -- ring honest and true, for any era.

September 29, 2011 Full Review

Neil Pond

American Profile

Adventureland is ultimately an interesting but flawed mixture of Mottolla's early indie sensibility (The Daytrippers) with some of the more mainstream teen comedy elements of Superbad.

August 26, 2011 Full Review

Eric Goldman

IGN Movies

The characters are pointlessly depressing, wallowing in their own negative emotions laced with pot-smoke and messy post-teenage sex.

June 27, 2011 Full Review | Comments (4)

Kevin Carr

7M Pictures

Adventureland's young cast is strong, and, when the film works, it captures the languid limbo of post-adolescent confusion and longing.

April 20, 2011 Full Review

Jeff Meyers

Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

A coming of age tale based loosely on the experiences of writer/director Greg Mottola, Adventureland is a surprisingly dense teen flick yet its unfortunate forays into religion bashing undermines its overall effect.

July 6, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

Matthew Pejkovic

Matt's Movie Reviews

It's a bit slight and rambling, but also manages to engage us due to the sharply drawn characters

July 6, 2010 Full Review

Rich Cline

Shadows on the Wall

[Mottola has] done his job in making the work feel authentic, funny, and like a breeze to sit through.

February 23, 2010 Full Review

Jeffrey Chen

Window to the Movies

Regardless of the well filled-out cast and the fact that it's structured like a comedy, Adventureland just isn't funny. There really aren't jokes and the overlong running time is mostly given to a standard budding romance.

November 12, 2009 Full Review | Comments (9)

Adam Lippe

Examiner.com

Content to occupy that middle ground where insights are authentic but far from revelatory and comedy is more amiable than riotous.

November 6, 2009 Full Review | Comments (2)

Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

A funny, touching and honest film about a serious 22-year-old neither embarrassed by nor exulting in his lack of sexual experience.

September 18, 2009 Full Review

Philip French

Observer [UK]

Without recourse to frilly cuffs or a montage to A Flock Of Seagulls' greatest hit, it plays the '80s card for something heartfelt.

September 18, 2009 Full Review

Ian Nathan

Empire Magazine

Adventureland is reminiscent of indie movies like Breaking Away, Dazed and Confused and Clerks. You could put it another way and say it's not very original. Yet, watching the movie, you're too swept up in James's problems to care.

September 11, 2009 Full Review

This is London

Its gentle charm and effortless eloquence personified by its winning lead, Adventureland is only marred by a rote final reel.

September 11, 2009 Full Review

Richard Luck

Film4

The whole enterprise is infused with a quality of feeling, an integrity, that is rare in such a commercial film.

September 11, 2009 Full Review

Toby Young

Times [UK]

A tremendously funny and touching coming-of-age story, which he has set in the 1980s with a sprinkling of nicely chosen cultural references.

September 11, 2009 Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian [UK]

Like all films that strike a chord, you'll find yourself replaying your own memories as the credits roll on a comedy that fires the heart.

September 11, 2009 | Comment (1)

Dan Brightmore

Little White Lies

• 1. Em Lewin: Wow.
  2. James Brennan: Hi. I just got off the bus. I'm a New Yorker now. I guess I should probably buy an umbrella.
  3. Em Lewin: I don't think I can see you.
  4. James Brennan: What?
  5. Em Lewin: This summer was rough. I did things that I really, really regret.
  6. James Brennan: Yeah, me too. I'm sorry I told Lisa P. about you and Connell. She told the rest of the world, but I'm not gonna lie. I was really angry at you but you didn't deserve that.
  7. Em Lewin: You know, James, I am so sorry for fucking this up. You were the only good thing that happened this summer. [starts to walk away]
  8. James Brennan: Wait, Em! I think I maybe see you a little differently than you see yourself. Yes I see the person who fucked up, but I also see the person who saved me from being knifed over a giant-ass panda, who introduced me to psychotropic chocolate-chip cookies, who stood up for Joel, and who doesn't make apologies for herself. Look, my theory is you can't just avoid everybody you screw up with. And you should trust me, I'm a New Yorker.
  – Submitted by MarieBella C (7 months ago)
• 1. James Brennan: Look, am I gonna get in trouble? No one's ever supposed to lose a giant-ass panda.
  2. Em Lewin: Is it worth getting knifed over?
  3. James Brennan: No. Hi, I'm James Brennan. I just started.
  4. Em Lewin: Em, nice to meet you. Sucks you're gonna lose your job your second day, James.
  5. James Brennan: No. Shit! I need this job.
  6. Em Lewin: I'm kidding.You're okay. I'll tell Bobby you lost the panda at knife point.
  – Submitted by MarieBella C (7 months ago)
• 1. Em Lewin: [yelling at Sue] You know you don't deserve to date Joel. You're an anti-Semitic asshole, what do you like hate gay people too? Do you support apartheid? You are not my friend!
  – Submitted by MarieBella C (7 months ago)
• 1. James Brennan: Who's that?
  2. Em Lewin: It's my stepmom. I don't think there's any pictures of my mom in here. She died two years ago.
  3. James Brennan: Really? I'm sorry.
  4. Em Lewin: My dad remarried last year. That's Francy. You see that unholy abomination on her head? It's a wig.
  5. James Brennan: Is it?
  6. Em Lewin: She had, like, a nervous breakdown when her first husband divorced her. Lost all her hair. I would feel bad if she wasn't such a status-obsessed witch.
  – Submitted by MarieBella C (7 months ago)
• 1. Em Lewin: [referring to her step-mom] I can't believe my dad wants to be with that. Do you want to hear something fucked up?
  2. James Brennan: What?
  3. Em Lewin: When my mom first started getting, like, really sick my dad starts going to temple. He's never been serious about his faith. But he decided to buddy up to God like he thought it was going to help save my mom. And that's where he met Francy. My mom loses her hair in chemo and my dad starts fucking a bald woman. It's just weird.
  – Submitted by MarieBella C (7 months ago)
• 1. James Brennan: I think somebody was trying to write 'Satan Lives' on that wall but they spelled it 'Satin Lives'.
  2. Em Lewin: One of those textile worshiping cults no doubt.
  – Submitted by MarieBella C (7 months ago)

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