A film so tuned in to the pre-collegiate experience that scenes which play as comedy to some audiences will land as harrowing tragedy to others.

| May 27, 2016

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

| Original Score: C+ | Nov 6, 2009

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 18, 2009

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2009

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2009

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

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 11, 2009

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2009

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2009

While this has its longueurs and is not without clichés, it is also a richly enjoyable, witty, well observed piece of nostalgia.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2009

It is a coming-of-age picture which seems not so different from any other but hits delightfully odd notes thanks to Mottola's terrifically smart script and a cast of mostly eager young actors.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 11, 2009

With appealing characters and a winning retro soundtrack including The Cure and Lou Reed, it's a very entertaining watch - even if it doesn't reach the cult status it seems to be striving for.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2009

Adventureland would love to be "this generation's Ferris Bueller". But if you set your teen movie an entire generation ago, it's not going to be this generation's anything. Instead it's going to be a challenge-free nostalgia binge - at best.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 11, 2009

Most films about the sex problems of young people are puerile and offensive. Mottola's are distinctive because he cares about his characters, and because he knows them at first hand.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 12, 2009

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

| Apr 6, 2009

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

| Original Score: A- | Apr 6, 2009

"Adventureland" is the sort of film that seems simultaneously slavishly derivative of countless other coming-of-age stories, but also admirably personal and specific.

Full Review | Apr 3, 2009

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

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 3, 2009

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 3, 2009

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

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 3, 2009

Yes, you've seen much of it before, and the nervous James character is now officially a cliché. But Stewart makes you care anyway. This, folks, is an actress.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 3, 2009