math reviews of Adventureland

Say Anything + (Caddyshack - Meatballs) + Annie Hall / The Squid and the Whale

there really is an adventureland on long island, where this film takes place. it's about 10 minutes from where i grew up.

yes, but it was too modernized since Greg Mottola worked there, so they used Kennywood in Pittsburgh.

is there a thread for this movie?

Based on the trailers, I was surprised to read this was set in 1987. It looks more like 1981 to me.

is this movie good?

without having seen it, let me say yes

nytimes review made it seem like yr right

It's OK (spam), and this is the thread for it. Not heavily Apatovian, so cavemen who laugh at traffic lights beware.

Jesse Eisenberg's diction is so Alvy Singeresque in the bar scene I was rolling. He seems to have the young hyperverbal pale Jewish intellectual niche all to himself for now.

It's nice (and inevitable) to hear a soundtrack with The Other '80s represented on the soundtrack (tho a bit heavyhandedly -- it starts with "Bastards of Young").

Non-ILM type ppl around 30 really think we were all listening to Wang Chung in '85.

..and making out to Avalon.

yes, thank god someone is finally repping for independent 80s rock bands

I'm sure that's some album cuz making out to a Barry Levison film wd be weird

xp

Not heavily Apatovian, so cavemen who laugh at traffic lights beware.

hahahahahaha. . . wait what? fire truck?

me no understand doctor post

max SIGH

I'm sure that's some album cuz making out to a Barry Levison film wd be weird

Wait, hold on, you're not kidding are you?

no, i'm not, & wrong thread

"Bastards of Young" was on a major label

oh OK, right thread, Ned. I'm sure I'd recognize a Roxy Music hit if I heard one.

way to make soto cry xp

Caddyshack(-1)^(1/2) = Muriel's Wedding Muriel's Wedding^2+1=0 exp(Muriel's Wedding*Pi)+1=0 i = \sqrt{-1} Muriel's Wedding -1 1 2 i^2+1 = 0 2 1 0 e^{i\pi}+1 = 0 The Last American Virgin where Pi 1 0 e The base of the natural logarithms. Also called Euler's constant. Also called the base of the The Wild Life logarithms. Although e^x = exp(x), for mathematical purposes the functional form is preferred, while for displaying purposes, the exponential form is preferred. Constant e=exp(1) e^x = exp(x) e = limit( (1+1/n)^n, n, infinity ) e = 2.71828182845904523536028747135, "30-digit approximation" e^x = \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} (1+x/n)^n x 1 1 n n n infinity + plus The addition operator of any group Binary, Freaks n Geeks Associative, Commutative, Error

yes velko, and Tim still means nothing to the 19-year-olds who will see this film.

way to make soto cry xp

I'm...speechless.

Say Anything + (Caddyshack - Meatballs) + Annie Hall / The Squid and the Whale

― Dr Morbius, Friday, April 3, 2009 10:10 AM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

so your review is that a movie set in the 1980s starring the kid from the squid in the whale is like 1980s movies and the squid and the whale

Tim still means nothing to the 19-year-olds who will see this film.

Repeated elements are discarded from a set. Many systems will use alternative notations to denote sets, for example {a,b,c,....}. The set may be homogeneous (all elements of the same type) or inhomogeneous (elements can be of different types).

stfu Morbs I knew about Tim when I was 19

lock thread plz

ps i checked out "pleased to meet me" from the public library when i was 16 (this was in 1995)

yeah i think i was either 15 or 16 when i found about those awesome dudes

pretty sure a lot of 19 yr olds know roxy music albums at least

Annie Hall came out in '77 n/a you fat shirtless slob

trolling getting rlly lame by yr standards, guys

i owned both those records when i was seventeen and listened to them approx. twice each

i was 19 when tim came out : (

first time i played airdrums was to Alex Chilton in the backseat of my friend's car. . . I wasn't driving because I was. . . 15 years old OMG!!!!!

good movie

at this point i think ONLY 19 year olds care about tim

you do the math

For the binary case, when the selector is 0, select has the value of the function or operator at the top of the expression tree. Nary (anything integer) -> anything (array integer integer) -> anything (array integer integer integer) -> anything select(a,k) = a[k] select(a,i,j) = a[i,j] select(a+b,1) = a length

n/a was wearing a shirt when i met him--FYI

Annie Hall came out in '77 n/a you fat shirtless slob

trolling getting rlly lame by yr standards, guys

― Dr Morbius, Friday, April 3, 2009 10:39 AM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

pretty sure that any trolling that gets "you fat shirtless slob" in response is by definition not lame

why are dr morbius and i the only one posting math reviews itt??? cmon guys

greg mottola + jesse eisenberg = adventureland!!

i'm sure you know i was talking about AVERAGE kids born in 1990 who will go to the multiplex tonight expecting Superbad II, k thx post when you see the film or just kill me

fyi doc imo u shouldve just gone with f'(x) more pithy same content

shirtless by my bloody valn/atine was a great record

average kids (born in 1990) x multiplex = superbad II / kill morbius

trolling getting rlly lame by yr standards, Morbz

Tim - better production - Bob Stinson + better songs + Memphis + Jim Dickinson=Pleased to Meet Me

(ryan reynolds)(jessie eisenberg)^2 + (superbad)(jessie eisenberg) + meatballs = 0

Alfred, obv I know "More Than This" but couldn't have told you RM did it.

I know their early tracks like "2HB" mostly from Velvet Goldmine. (I've told you guys repeatedly I'm not a muso.)

max, go see Hunger at BAM as your penance, and of the Holy Ghost, amen.

integral( f ) == my so-called life( x, integral(f,x) ) divorce italian style( cos ) = sin integral( 'blister in the sun'(x, cos(x)) ) = sin integral(paul rudd, 2*x^2+3) ) = ZEN ARCADE/(x, x^3+3*x)

(no muso)

This is the tracklisting for the soundtrack CD:

1. Satellite Of Love - Lou Reed
2. Modern Love - David Bowie
3. I’m In Love With A Girl - Big Star*
4. Just Like Heaven - The Cure
5. Rock Me Amadeus - Falco
6. Don’t Change - Inxs
7. Your Love - The Outfield*
8. Don’t Dream It’s Over - Crowded House
9. Looking For A Kiss - The New York Dolls
10. Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely - Husker Du
11. Unsatisfied - The Replacements
12. Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground*
13. Farewell Adventureland - Yo La Tengo
14. Adventureland Theme Song - Brian Kenney

'85 Wang Chung ("Dance Hall Days", "Fire in the Twilight") doesn't seem too out of place here...?

(starvation + irish nationalism)/(cameras + acting) = hunger

yeah, along with the indie-kid stuff the Top 40 crap is there for flavor (ie, Martin Starr covering his ears at hearing Falco for the 100th time in a day)

Rock Me Amadeus - Falco divided by 6. Don’t Change - Inxs
* 7. Your Love - The Outfield*=Wang Chung

btw the score is by Yo La Tengo, and unless it was really stealthy there seems to be about 8 minutes of it

that's a pretty ok soundtrack

is this movie safe for math dunces like me

xp so then by the identity property, adventureland = junebug

(that's all the math i can contribute until i actually see this, hopefully this wknd)

morbs review + a.o. scott review * s1ocki repping/my affection for straggly amusement parks = i will probably see this

(ie, Martin Starr covering his ears at hearing Falco for the 100th time in a day)

Huh, if the movie is set in the summer of 1987, that's over a year after it hit #1 in the US.

I'm sure amusement parks kept it in heavy rotation for another summer, but the Premiere Magazine Gaffe Squad (RIP) thanks you

Hey Morbs do you like The Daytrippers? How does this compare?

I still haven't seen The Daytrippers. Ddin't realize Mottola had done so much TV btwn it and Superbad.

He had to do something!

morbs than this
you know there's nothing
morbs than this

also if Sugar or Hunger are opening near you, go see them first.

stfu Morbs I knew about Tim when I was 19

― Mr. Que, Friday, April 3, 2009 11:36 AM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

cosine

MORBIUSRATING =(INDEX(jaymcxls, RockMeAmadeusYear, BillboardPos) + (INDEX(jaymcxls, RockMeAmadeusYear) - INDEX(jaymcxls, ILXBdates, DrMorbius)) / INDEX(jaymcxls, ILXVirginityLossDates, DrMorbius)^BOBMOULDGAYFACTOR

ITS ABOUT KIDS WHO ARE 19 NOWWWWWWWWWWW, OK!!!!

WHO WON'T WATCH MOVIES THAT DON'T HAVE SUPERHEROES OR COCKPUNCHING, WHICH IS WHY THIS MOVIE HAS COCKPUNCHING

I liked The Daytrippers – the cast is the alpha and omega of indie movie actors.

daytrippers is great

i don't think 19 year olds today are substantially less likely to know about the Replacements than 19 year olds of 5 years ago or 10 years ago or 15 years ago.

> Adjusted for COCKPUNCHING

MORBIUSRATINGADJUSTED = MORBIUSRATING^(1/(CPSTRENGTH+CPTIME-VISIBLEDICKOUTLINE)

xp i do, they know less about everything except texting.

Whatever Morbs, you're totally into cockpunching.

only if the cockpunch is delivered by a fat, shirtless slob

it is better to give than receive

xp i do, they know less about everything except texting.

― Dr Morbius, Friday, April 3, 2009 12:36 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

a+++++++

best parts of this were martin starr & bill heder

Say Anything + (Caddyshack - Meatballs) + Annie Hall / The Squid and the Whale

As far as I can tell, Caddyshack - Meatballs = Golf. I assume there's no golf in Adventureland though -- is that because the tennis in the denominator somehow cancels it out?

"fast and furious" did 15x its business on friday. moviegoers: fuck all y'all.

Bill Heder is a slightly above-avg sketch comedian, I coulda lived w/out all of him.

box office: who cares?

^ alpha and omega of stupid internet doctors

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/13/2e/aaa1024128a0c1f1adbf7010.L._AA240_.jpg

stylus + moovee critics = slant

poprox kritiks hating on movee criticx = umpteenth treasure room of ilx

http://rlv.zcache.com/bumper_sticker_when_you_say_retard_someone_hurts-p128334692631657454tmn6_210.jpg

loved this.

http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_12046982

WHO WON'T WATCH MOVIES THAT DON'T HAVE SUPERHEROES OR COCKPUNCHING,

http://clownprinceofcrime.com/image/hamil3.jpg

I wrote for Stylus too "Dr Phil" (Christ, thats a rarefied moniker)

http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/tempest/1778/Image/dr.%20Phil.jpg

my brother just described this to me as "like if Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppala took a shit on a piece of paper and turned it in as a script." unfortunately he didn't use any mathematic symbols.

eh whatever. i think morbs' initial formula was in the ballpark. it wasn't precious/precocious enough to sound/look like anything wes anderson or sofia coppola have done, even their "good" stuff. just because it has a good soundtrack doesn't mean it sucks. writing was subtle and honest, acting was nice, yes i'm partial to moods/themes like this one, it just seemed like a pretty otm take on it.

this was like an '80s dazed and confused with less of an "ensemble" cast and thankfully less look-ma-we're-retro signifiers

(that second "less" should be "fewer," i know...)

this movie was good and not overly twee, but the last half-hour was pretty formulaic. yay martin starr, his line readings had F&G's Bill's exact intonations.

dr. morb's movie reviews are really well written

i don't really care about 80s indie music or cockpunching, but i really liked this movie

Not to cater to the Doc Morbs viewpoint, but I really think that this one really benefited from not having Apatow-style crazy shit grafted on top. I felt like it actually had characters that have realistic problems and lives that aren't in your face and are probably more memorable and funny for it.

The main character was hard to relate to for me for a while, but the Annie Hall comparisons are right on. It's nice to have a character that's believable but not instantly lovable because he hits all the awkward points that make me cringe. Nearly universally-loved characters are the least realistic, imo.

yeah i agree with that, mostly. overall i almost think the characters were too unlikeable. i mean, kids at that age are pretty prone to being fuckin selfish and unlikeable so i guess it is more realistic but i thought the good qualities in the chick (other than being cute) needed 2 be brought out more for him to forgive her so easily.

also did not like the few 'fuck my life' type lines by eisenberg ugh. he was also pretty whiny and selfish imo

best scene is martin starr trying to give that girl the gogol book

I didn't like Ryan Reynolds in this at all and think it would have been better with someone else in that role.

http://www.jerriblank.com/rudd.jpg

That is pretty much exactly what I was thinking.

reynolds didn't bother me much actually, he didn't have to do much besides look cool (the trailer for his upcoming movie on the other hand looked really, really terrible).

All the trailers before this looked awful but the new one with Hayden Panettiere (Heroes girl, not gonna check the spelling) gave me a headache.

oh god that one was the worst.

Yeah, Ryan Reynolds needs to not be cast in that role ever again, although they used him little enough in this one that he was able to do a drive-by of his attractive loser "cool guy" stereotype and disappear.

yeah, you only really got a sense of his character from other characters talking about him while he was offscreen

Not to cater to the Doc Morbs viewpoint, but I really think that this one really benefited from not having Apatow-style crazy shit grafted on top. I felt like it actually had characters that have realistic problems and lives that aren't in your face and are probably more memorable and funny for it.

OTM; I really loved this. It is missing all the elements that made Superbad a more overtly Apatowian film and is just kind of a low key and honest little flick; actually i guess the only apatow it reminded me of was Freaks and Geeks (nice callback with Starr's "do you want me to go into anaphylactic shock" line). Kristen Stewart's stoned, barely there acting worked better in this than it did in Twilight. Wigg and Hader were the only over the top things in it and they were fine, it needed some of that.

Also Lisa P's outfits!

i thought the good qualities in the chick (other than being cute) needed 2 be brought out more for him to forgive her so easily

hmmm, I was fine w/ her; him turning into a total dick re drunken babbling about her affair w/ d'bag RR seemed grafted onto Eisenberg to grease the plot. I think he wd've been so wounded he would've shut up about it even when drunk.

i guess i didn't post itt

i loved this tho

Granted, this film is no doubt Tape Store bait, still I think it's the best movie of the past couple years!

It's a really smart film; I especially love the way he treats the Joel/Em situation.

i thought ryan reynolds was fine, im not a fan of this dude when he's mr. cool van wilder guy but casting him as a bit of a loser was inspired imo and i liked that he was just chill and rocked a pretty small performance

otm

Reynolds is OK when he doesn't make any jokes. No quips in this film, so he's likeable.

i've never seen this Reynolds person before, but he's basically the gagfree version of Matthew McC's Dazed & Confused loser.

I think I'm seeing this for a third time tonight. This should have been released in arthouses first, not multiplexes (and i'll say the same thing about 500 Days of Summer, which is most likely getting the multiplex treatment).

My take.

come now, Tapey, it's got cockpunching and SNL ppl who shd be doing improv in Akron

Alfred, much as I'd like to imagine Jesse E as an Ausralian skinhead, that was Roger Dodger.

"we've all had jobs in the service sector that allowed too much downtime"

no, we haven't. I successfully avoided all those jobs even in my teens, passionately hating the general public since I was about 8.

morbs surely by now you know that anytime "we" refer to "we" "we" aren't also referring to you

given my current job hunt's dire vibe I may yet end up a KMart greeter.

short on lols, LONG ON CUTE

OTM

I aww'd

A little wtf that the only black character was kind of a prop/running joke and never had a line (unless I missed it in the beginning of the movie, which I missed).

there was a black character!?

Lisa P's dancing sidekick. I mean not really a "character" per se.

ah

i didnt "get" that "joke"/"prop"

lisa p's been on my mind all week

id kick game to lisa p

lisa p make-out in car scene was my first theater bonar in a while lol tmi

Yes, her name is Kelly. And there's another obvious prop, Rich, the parking attendant guy.

I saw this film for the seventh time yesterday. Also, The Daytrippers is great.

rejected thread ideas - compilation of theatre bonarz

yea daytrippers rocks

Hurting TMI yellowcard boner

what a crock of shit. was this movie written by a college sophomore?

Shit is like a Questionable Content cartoon come to life with some psuedo-intellectual dipshit akwardly putting in the names of bands and authors he likes

"Cool record collection... Eno, Big Star, Roxy Music."

Cool record collection.

Film in referencing art SHOCKER

Film in referencing art in cloying, pathetic, emo, immature, high school senior book report way

SHOCKER

hadar and wiig were the only good things and they were in the movie for like 7 minutes total.

and the rest was a really unexceptional love story based on the hope that audience members confuse "character development" with "close-ups of cute people's faces while we play 'pale blue eyes'"

did you not pick up on the protagonist's very very realistic immature pretentiousness? it's obviously very intentional. See:
"I don't really celebrate fourth of july. i'm all about bastille day, it's just so much more..." [James stops as Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" blares and fireworks go off, James suddenly falls for Fourth of July]

So more like realistic character brings up art in pathetic immature way.

well of course for a lot of it, yes.

But it doesn't fly when EVERY CHARACTER was suggesting gogol novels and having artfully placed black flag stickers in their bedrooms.

http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2009/02/images/qc1349crop.png

MOGWAI

i wanted to see the Earth movie :(

By the way, I think yr missing a lot. I watch a good number of films, and I was shocked the way Mottola treated [spoilers] the relationship between joel and em. And it finds subtle ways to talk about class (listen to the stepmom in the background during that part where Em is getting bored with television) and relationships (ok, talks about that in some not-so-subtle ways, too).

Um, exactly, it wasn't every character. A Russian literature book nerd (these guys exist, i know a few) brings up Gogol. Girls listening to hip music also exist (and she doesn't really mention it much, she's too cool). The only character who really does this is James, who I covered above. The only other guy I can think of who namechecks culture is that one girl's brother who brings up Judas Priest.

did you not pick up on the protagonist's very very realistic immature pretentiousness? it's obviously very intentional. See:
"I don't really celebrate fourth of july. i'm all about bastille day, it's just so much more..."

I agree with this. In fact I had a friend in college in some ways not dissimilar to the protagonist who ironically celebrated bastille day.

xpost
yeah the movie really set the Lou Reed/Big Star kids against the Judas Priest/Journey kids. I actually agree with you on all of your points except the word "subtle". A subtle movie would have more interactions and anecdotes and dialogue instead of these looooong make out scenes. Like my favorite stuff in the movie was the nerdball explaining the games or the two of them having an awkward chat about virginity.

And for the pseudo-intellectual stuff, that was all so heavy-handed (lol @ u trying to zing me with i missed it). Like subtle (and funny!) is like in old Woody Allen movies like Sleeper or Bananas where Woody starts rattling off shit but is getting his facts wrong.

To be fair to the movie, all the band talk means it had a v good soundtrack. And I liked the reverence in which they treated the park with the really pretty, photograph-style establishing shots

Basically, I wanted it to be Dazed And Confused 87 and not Nick And Norah's Infinite college radio playlist.

i really don't remember much band talk, only a couple lines besides the "i sat in with lou reed" stuff.

maybe it helps that i don't really know or care much about '80s indie

whiney yr overreacting--there was little to no discussion of bands, what little there was came across as appropriate, i know were all big bad music critics trying to level the pop playing field but this wasnt an anti-journey manifesto, it was about a bunch of insecure kids with some ideas about art and stuff.

like if i was going to make a list of important elements/themes in this movie "the music" would be way, way down at the bottom

agreed, I feel like whiney saw a different movie than me.

personally I really enjoyed this movie but disliked Nick and Norah.

it is funny that the rock critic's issue with the movie is the bands the characters are into

it's related to the rock critic Peter Principle

wang chung was awesome when they were the highlight of the 5th grade dance, even if i couldn't and the popular kids could, and they are awesome today, moreso than a lot of their ilk. it was just a few years before i got into hair bands like the 'mats, and just a few more before older dude got me into Let It Be. didn't get to Tim, my fave, until law school, i think, but i haven't cared to listen to PTMM more than twice and will let the early stuff come to me if and when it does, and think that if you still spend a lot of time listening to those dudes maybe you're not quite growed up enough, though i suppose i shouldn't begrudge oldies their adolescent faves. i could care less Apatow (but more about him than Caddyshack or Meatballs), The Squid and the Whale (but not the squid and the whale), Annie Hall (but not Larry David), and "'80s" revivalism (but not Colson Whitehead's 1985), but this thing sounds decent enough to go with to.

thought this movie was very very good. the cringe-y parts were so funny & true

whiney wow

i'm as shocked as you are. i swear i'm not trying to be challopy, i think i'm just hitting some new level of jaded.

I remember being in a van with a friend and this happened
http://mommylife.net/archives/2009/03/26/sun%20clouds.jpgp

and he just sarcastically said "ENNNGH did GOD do that?"

I give myself a year until i'm at that point, coming on this board and just ranting about how hamburgers are gross and corgis are stupid.

i almost started a thread called, "you know what, fuck falafel"

you're like the neil armstrong of jaded

haaaaa :(

there's supposed to be an image in that previous post of this
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_14/1119308458EOk949.jpg

you know what fuck clouds

i was also thinking of starting a DO YOU THINK PEOPLE ARE FRONTING WITH THIS WHOLE LIFE IS A GLORIOUS WONDER SHIT NOWADAYS for whenever people post about how Sigur Ros makes them cry or Man On Wire is the most life-affirming thing ever. But I don't think anyone would actually post on it with me.

Except maybe whoever was leading the "People who think traveling in space is the apotheosis of life are posing" charge on the space thread

haaaha this thread is great how did i miss it 1st time

adventureland - me + ilx thread math reviews of adventureland = will dl

btw avalon + lifting = raad

can you post to your blog when good qual leak is avail plz thx?

your blog is my top yogurt leak blog

DO YOU THINK PEOPLE ARE FRONTING WITH THIS WHOLE LIFE IS A GLORIOUS WONDER SHIT NOWADAYS

People do this so seldom on ilx in a nonironic way, and get clowned pretty badly when they're overly enthusiastic about shit. I think that being genuine is kind of OK, but my genuine self is more associated with clowning starry-eyed people than ranting about beautiful afternoons.

The other nice thing about this movie was the points when people were being genuine versus those when they were doing some sort of show for others. You can be a book geek without throwing out obvious references for show, but then when you're speaking normally you're going to occasionally throw one of those things in or make a bad metaphor and sound legit.

I haven't really kept up with Greg M's directorial career since he lost the black hat. I guess I should probably catch up.

i really enjoyed this movie.

is Eisenberg the new hoodie heartthrob?

http://gawker.com/5352067/after-cera-who-is-americas-next-hoodie-hearthtrob

I also just watched this last night. I liked it a lot, although, yes, it does get predictable towards the end. I prefer Rush or even Journey to Lou Reed but I can also relate to wanting to distinguish yourself from the 'mainstream', even if only in a self-deluded kind of way, which seems to be the more important point. (If anything, the Rush and Judas Priest fans in the movie were more weird and dorky than the indie kids. They weren't the pretty people!)

Huh, if the movie is set in the summer of 1987, that's over a year after it hit #1 in the US.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, April 3, 2009 10:59 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm sure amusement parks kept it in heavy rotation for another summer, but the Premiere Magazine Gaffe Squad (RIP) thanks you

― Dr Morbius, Friday, April 3, 2009 11:02 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The Dr.'s point is a good one, and after watching this last night, it struck me that it was actually perfect to have a year-old song being played ad nauseum. Like if an amusement park this summer kept playing Flo Rida's "Low."

yeah

that's kind of how the real world works!

didn't mean that to sound snarky... i was just remembering james gray talking about how he hated in movies when all the furniture and appliances and clothing were all brand-new, as if older things never stuck around...

I finally watched this yesterday. It's a great idea but everything seems so forced. Kristen is totally kissable but those multiple kiss scenes are gross over-the-top. not needed. we get it.

kissing is so gross

not in a film that it's stupidly exaggerated.

really irresponsible for the film to ignore the major cooties risks the characters were taking

okay zing zing zing.

movie __________ + Martin Starr (esp. as a jaded Russian-lit dork) = will see

(did see, liked OK)

. i was just remembering james gray talking about how he hated in movies when all the furniture and appliances and clothing were all brand-new, as if older things never stuck around...

Did you mention this in another thread recently? Because I could've sworn I'd just read something similar (maybe in relation to Mad Men)?

is jesse eisenberg cute? what's going on there? i seriously can't tell

Did you mention this in another thread recently? Because I could've sworn I'd just read something similar (maybe in relation to Mad Men)?

― jaymc, Saturday, September 5, 2009 6:32 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not that i can remember!

jaymc i saw a thing abt man men that was kind of the opposite of this - they were complaining abt how all the magazines they read looked like they were from antique shops, rather than brand new

liked this more then i thought i would = good rental

Any movie that uses "Let the Music Play" so effectively is at least pretty good. Really the only part that disappointed was Ryan Reynolds, they would have been better off with another actor in that role.

yes, the Mad Men guy said he purposely used "old" stuff from earlier eras.

this film was dope. the traffic lights were lol too.

this was okay, kinda weightless. relied an awful lot on its soundtrack.

i think it had nuanced direction.

this was okay, kinda weightless. relied an awful lot on its soundtrack.

― Blanket McCulkin (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, September 14, 2009 10:42 AM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how so

just as obvious signifiers a la "this scene is serious!"(insert VU song) vs. "this scene is hilarious!" (insert Priest song/80s dance hit), the constant music references (Lou Reed! "oh you like Big Star and the Replacements" etc.)

I think I woulda loved this movie had it actually come out in 1987 when I was in high school/about to go to college but I just sorta don't care as much about this kinda story now that I'm older.

relied an awful lot on its soundtrack.

^^ so do teenagers

im not american but it felt real to me that the alt kids would like those bands and talk about them.

playing 'breaking the law' during a chase sequence or 'don't dream it's over' in a smooch scene is almost audaciously obvious: i bought that too.

^^ so do teenagers

yep

it's not about teenagers! but it still felt authentic. ferris bueller has all these band posters but never once talks about music. or again shia la bouef in transformers – never once *talks* about the strokes.

i know, when the movie was over we looked at each other and were like WHA

Eisenberg is doing the same shtick opp Woody Harrelson (riffing on Natural Born Killers) in the Zombieland promos (Shaun of the Dead vibe). Now he sounds like Woody Allen from Bananas/Sleeper era. (The best gag is his offering Purell after they all toss a corpse.) I guess he's aiming to become the Owen Wilson of gabby Jewfro'd indie boys.

he was so good in 'n&tw' and this. it's not entirely unheard of for hollywood actors to repeat themselves from time to time – obviously minor cases, but, you know, douglas fairbanks, humphrey bogart, guys like that.

Yes, I think those personas wore better than this one (or Owen Wilson's) will, at least after 5 years.

I am developing such a huge crush on Kristen Stewart after this and Into The Wild that I might even watch Twilight.

"jesse eisenberg is the new bogart" - history mayne

who is history mayne

and did he abbrv that other eisenberg pic as "noah and the whale" above?

math reviews of Zombieland

Adventureland + (Dawn of the Dead - malls) + Superbad / Kingpin

= ...?

and did he abbrv that other eisenberg pic as "noah and the whale" above?

― "I get through more mojitos.." (bear, bear, bear), Wednesday, September 23, 2009 7:00 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haaaa. whoops.

= ...?

― deej, Friday, September 25, 2009 5:02 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

= zombieland

I am developing such a huge crush on Kristen Stewart after this and Into The Wild that I might even watch Twilight.

I haven't seen Into the Wild and it won't make me go see Twilight but I was surpised at how fetching I found her in this.

She's lovely in this and Into the Wild (in which her turn is totally heartbreaking) but in Twilight she's pretty bland.

Not to interrupt the crushing on Kristen Stewart, but is it just me or has there been a flood of nostalgic coming-of-age indie movies recently: this, "Superbad", "The Wackness", "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" - some others no doubt I'm forgetting. Is it just that the Gen-Xers are getting old? Are these movies to our generation what "Diner" was for Boomers?

I thought this was kind of soulful, in it's way. Probably my favorite of the current wave, and with the best soundtrack (though "The Wackness" had a pretty good soundtrack too).

She's lovely in this and Into the Wild (in which her turn is totally heartbreaking) but in Twilight she's pretty bland.

The acting is uniformly bland and/or just plain bad in Twilight, which makes me think it might be a problem with the directing?

has there been a flood of nostalgic coming-of-age indie movies recently:

this isn't recent. there's been at least one a year since oh, I dunno, the 90s. You left out such gems as Garden State, L.I.E., the Squid and the Whale, Igby Goes Down, etc.

Yeah, true. I guess it's a perennial trove of material.

I guess I'm just wondering why the tendency in the current wave to set the story in a literal past milieu. In contrast, the classic John Hughes teen movies of the '80s were always set in the contemporary present, despite the fact that some elements of the them were no doubt autobiographical. There seems to be something slightly ungenerous about the retro-fetishism - an unwillingness - or is it an inability? - to imagine oneself in the youth of today.

are a bunch of these set in the 80s (apart from Adventureland)? Cuz if so I hadn't noticed. I didn't see The Wackness but that's 90s, right?

There's precedents for setting these things in the past - Dazed and Confused (70s, but came out in the 90s), and of course American Graffiti

Aren't "Superbad" and "Nick and Norah" set in the past too? I guess they're not too specific about the exact year, but both seem at least slightly not contemporary. Isn't the sountrack of "Superbad" kind of vintage? And the whole bridge-and-tunnel vibe of "N&N" seems kind of '90s.

Superbad's sdtk is all vintage funk for no apparent reason. They actually got Bootsy and Bernie Worrell to do the closing theme, which is hilariously awesome.

Superbad's got cell phones and myspace jokes. Feels very contemporary to me. Setting these in the past seems like a deliberate attempt to instill the vibes of Hughes stuff from the 80s. But, as said before, this is kind of perennial (see The Ice Storm, Wonderboys, tons more).

N+N is all about the Vampire Weekend et al. definitely contemporary, though ratty indie dive bars are timeless.

Well, I guess there are some contemporary details thrown in, so they're not ostensibly set in the past - but somehow they still seem nostalgic in a way that the Hughes movies weren't. I notice that critics compared them to "American Graffiti" and "Dazed and Confused" as well, so I don't think it's just me.

it's definitely not just you, and i think you're right that Gen X-ers are getting nostalgic for young adulthood. see also 500 days of summer.

saw this on a plane, 3 hours and 2 bottles of wine in, and it was pretty right on

^^^^

man i love this movie

imo

http://witneyman.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/lisa-p.jpg

this is the only movie i can think of where i want to date more of the girls in the movie than boys

i want the above jpg tattooed on my chest

still great

so amazing

on the other hand, worst fucking movie

wait, that wasn't math

last scene in movie = entire movie

what?

im glad that my mortal enemies of cultural commentary, whiney g & contenderizer, both seem to dislike this

Really loved this! Even with all the shoehorned music refs - i.e. the carefully placed Big Star album sleeve, etc.

add me to the dislike pile. i thought i was a big enough sucker for '80s indie and wistful coming of age stories that i'd enjoy this unconditionally, but it was fucking weak.

i didn't think a movie could dumb down the plot of The Apartment worse than Loser

that is not a v good criticism imo, this film does not have a dumb plot

what was weak about it?

is "coming of age story about a dude meeting a chick" really stolen from the plot of the apartment, or is it more a timeless framework?

'the apartment' is not a coming-of-age story.

i mean yeah, obviously it invented the love triangle, i won't take that from you.

well the "young guy pursues the strangely distant young girl all the while not knowing the older role model/authority figure type's been carrying on an extramarital affair with her all along" love triangle is slightly more specific, but sure, it's not like that alone is my problem w/ it.

honestly everyone in this thread who's all "this movie didn't talk about music or try to score points with its soundtrack constantly" is fronting so hard. and it felt like having people say "giant-ass panda" every 5 minutes did a lot of heavy lifting where there should've been some wit or characterization or something. it just felt like the director couldn't decide if he wanted to make a wish fulfillment movie about getting with the cool alt-rock chick he knew back then or the vapid hot chick so he was like yo how bout they BOTH want me and i have to choose damn i'm brilliant.

also any movie where anyone can see exactly how the 2nd and 3rd acts are going to play out as soon as every character is introduced has a dumb plot.

while i'm at it, i was distracted by the fact that the main character is 22, but acts more like an 18 year old that's about to start college than someone who just graduated, and is played by a 25-year-old actor who looks like he's pushing 30

There have always been plenty of 22-year-olds who "act 18" and/or are sexually naive, especially in the pre-sexting era (take it from me plz).

fair enough, but it was that in combination with him looking even older that made it odd for me.

this is the only movie i can think of where i want to date more of the girls in the movie than boys

― it takes a nation of 51 to hold us back (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 10 October 2009 06:49 (2 months ago) Permalink

^!!

loved this btw

i really don't get being annoyed by the soundtrack of this movie! it's good music, it isn't being shoved in your face = what's not to like?

saw this on a plane, 3 hours and 2 bottles of wine in, and it was pretty right on

― THE DUSKY VISITOR APPEALS TO CÆSAR (gbx), Friday, October 2, 2009 3:58 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i thought it was realistic that a dude like that would have liked that kind of music.

my issue w/ the music was neither that it was bad nor that it was unrealistic for the characters to listen to it. more that "someone who likes the same kewl records as you must be your soulmate" seems to be the base assumption of not just the characters but the filmmaker, and that being young and sad and listening to the Replacements is something pretty specific and identifiable to evoke with a movie but you should probably y'know do something with that mood once it's been established instead of just having them be happy and then sad again and cue up another 'Mats track.

i dunno, maybe i just spent so much of my summers around that age moping and listening to "Here Comes A Regular" that it felt too on-the-nose for me, but it came off more lazy and button-pushing than wow this director knows me so well in the context of the movie.

i don't think the movie thinks they're soulmates or endorses that concept really

coulda fooled me with that ending

to be fair it is a thinly-veiled biopic of u

the ending is super-sweet but i don't think there's much of a future for those crazy kids

haha

i dunno, i can see someone really digging the vibe of this movie or loving it while being aware that it's no masterpiece, but the amount of unqualified "this was so great"-type posts in this thread is just headscratching to me.

xpost

maybe it's because these types of films are so rarely any good at all

i'll give you that. but i dunno, these types of films are usually broader comedies, but at the same time let their characters be funnier or more goofy in ways that make them feel more real to me. the characters in Adventureland didn't remind me of anyone i grew up around, they were all either troubled old souls who occasionally deadpanned something about a giant-ass panda or vapid dorks with no sense of humor at all.

Eisenberg's character should have made a point of liking "Don't Dream It's Over," which is better than every Replacements ballad except "Within Your Reach."

so he basically should have been a proto-ilxer?

what movies are you talking about al? where the characters get to be funnier or more goofy

tbf i thought these characters were pretty funny. esp when the dude talks about giving out 'double sack wacks'

so he basically should have been a proto-ilxer?

Portrait of the Young Proto-Ilxer as a Young Man

wait who is the vapid dork with no sense of humor at all?

i will say, to be fair, that there was a real clear case of low-expectations-setting going into this.

but even w/ that context aside, i think this is a pretty good film, about as good as these kinds of things can be w/out being 'dazed & confused'

That's how I feel.

the movies that this reminds me of that I like better, and that have more memorable and more endearingly funny characters, are mainly Barry Levinson's own "middle-aged director reminisces about his youth" movies like Diner and Liberty Heights

it is not as good as diner, i will give you that. crazy talk re: liberty heights, which i also like.

Liberty Heights is v flawed and probably shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as Diner except categorically, but i have a sentimental attachment to it, the kind that i thought Adventureland might inspire but didn't.

wish i read this thread before seeing it, so i might have been prepared for how mundane, unmemorable and predictable I'd find it.

haha the movie, i mean

ironically, despite feeling like superbad was x1000000 times better (please acknowledge this opinion, morbz), found hader and wiig really out of place in this. Fave performance was probably Ryan Reynolds, whom I'm not used to seeing suggest an internal life.

ah man, good to have another dissenter here, really felt like i was taking crazy pills after all the enthusiasm for this formless, charmless dishwater.

TS: Adventureland vs. Zombieland?
No one wins.

Zombieland was at least fun, although it would've been more fun with a lead less bland than Eisenberg

bland?? i know u must know dudes like that irl

is familiar the opposite of bland or something?

This gets worse in the memory.

haters are str8 tripping but choose ur own adventure man*

*dys, adventureland

is familiar the opposite of bland or something?

― da croupier, Sunday, May 2, 2010 4:06 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

i think it can be? and in this case, is? i think his character captures some v. real & generally un-captured comedic beats that i recognize from irl interactions with dudes like this, and that recognition is a big part of what makes this film effective -- he doesnt feel like a 1-dimensional character, and it treats him fairly & w/out condescension at the same time

Superbad is a cartoon, croup, why don't you compare it to Human Centipede?

both were greg mottola movies about a clueless dweeb dealing with fucked up situations, goofy friends and their inability to find romantic success. one just went for the jugular with louder, more memorable jokes and situations, while the other tried to get brownie points from people who think mundane, bullshit character details are more tasteful and poignant if presented on the periphery of the screen.

is the human centipede about an innocent, bud cort-ish romantic secretly in love with the quirky, dark-haired girl whose mouth is sown to his anus, though? i haven't seen it.

sewn

now you tell me

heard

i can only imagine what a roller coaster ride croup's life must be

this was nice. superbad wasn't nice, but it was funny. i think zombieland might have been more subtle in terms of character progression, tbh.

Pale Blue Eyes would never have been on a jukebox in an old man bar in 1987.

I watched this the other night for the first time and enjoyed a lot about it but K Stewart is plain and boring and was so annoying in this that I had a hard time finishing it because she made it difficult for me to watch.

had a real jones to watch this after listening to the Replacements last week.

Rob Sheffield just included this in a piece on great movie-music moments--the Rolling Stones when Lisa P. is first introduced--so I found a cheap copy on the way home tonight and gave it a look.

Thought some of it was really good. It got rather plotty and melodramatic towards the end, and I've seen more than enough Jesse Eisenberg by now, but mostly I liked the tone. There's a split on Ryan Reynolds in the comments above. I thought he was excellent. That character could have so easily been a blowhard, and Reynolds plays him as anything but. (Not endorsing his behaviour in saying that.) He seemed very familiar to me, but I checked his IMDB page, and (unless I retain vivid memories of his Chip in Dick) I haven't seen him in anything.

Lots of great music, although a lot of it had a checklist feel to me. My favourite was "Unsatisfied" as Eisenberg's on the bus. Agree that "Pale Blue Eyes" on an old-guy jukebox--any kind of jukebox, really--belongs to the world of science-fiction.

Rescreened this not too long ago. Held up well. The "Just Like Heaven" sequence is fantastic.

Bumper cars, right? I'm not a big Cure fan, but yeah, that scene was really good. Possibly the blueprint for a similar scene in Take This Waltz from last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Yu2Ea6YDk

Yeah, bumper cars, everybody being happy. Looking back over the soundtrack credits now, I'd also give high (if not as high) marks to the "Breaking The Law" chase, "Obsession" at the disco, and as Sheffield pointed out, "Tops" intro-ing Lisa P.

i didn't love this. maria liked it more than i did. i wished it were funnier. could have used a wee bit more dumb summer fun teen sex romp mixed in with the earnest indie rock stuff. but, you know, i kept watching.

stars reunite for new comedy (not a sequel or anything)

http://variety.com/2013/film/news/kristen-stewart-jesse-eisenberg-starring-in-american-ultra-comedy-1200795324/

the subway poster has JE lookin so girly i thought it was a period piece set at Lilith Fair ... but they've apparently dumped that one for a more demo-friendly appeal.

http://cinestar.hu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/americanultra1.jpg

damn this film's amazing.

Pale Blue Eyes would never have been on a jukebox in an old man bar in 1987.
― thirdalternative,Friday, August 13, 2010 5:59 PM

I thought it was on this thread where somebody told me that, unlikely though it may be, it could have happened. I looked into it for something I'm working on, and it looks to be literally impossible. Prototypes for digital jukeboxes didn't come along until 1993, and, according to the Wikipedia discography, "Pale Blue Eyes" never appeared on a 45 (the Velvet Underground did release a few), not even as a B-side. "What Goes On"/"Jesus" was the single from the third album.

Not having the movie in front of me to check, it's a plain old jukebox we see, right? I was just remembering seeing my first CD jukebox as a kid at a Seafood Bar & Grill in like 1989 or so. Which then reminds me of seeing other CD jukes later that had to have been installed in that era because the newest music on them was from that time.

I'd have to look again--I'm not sure if you see the jukebox up close.

This is where I got the 1993 date:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/touchtunes-digital-jukebox/559784/

"TouchTunes began simply as a more convenient version of a pay-for-play jukebox. Launching its first prototype in 1993, by the late ’90s TouchTunes distinguished itself as a leader in digital jukeboxes, anticipating the MP3 as the next wave in music storage and playback."

That might be limited to just that company, though, so maybe your '89 date is more accurate. Which would still be two years later than the when the film's set.

I love trying to figure out things like this. There's a Godard film--Masculin Féminin, I think--where there's a close-up of a jukebox and you can see a two-sided Beatles single where I checked six ways to Sunday and could not confirm that that particular single existed. Someone (maybe here) told me that record companies sometimes pressed jukebox-only 45s that were specially configured.

Thanks for the article (didn't realize digital jukes went back that far), but I'm talking about actual CD jukeboxes that were packed with albums, which started getting phased in during the late '80s. Pretty sure that's not what's in the movie.

Also, re: 45s Not only were there special jukebox 45s (which frequently were reissues combining two hits as the a/b), but in a lot of foreign territories there would be exclusive releases featuring different songs, or release formats (for example, 45 EPs were huge in France in the '60s).

Elsewhere in the park, there's one of those recording booths where you can make your own one-off-acetate. Across several previous summers, a few kids who worked together year-after-year formed a band and would rehearse in the basement of one girl's house. In order to impress her, they learnt a note-perfect impersonation of the VU, and eventually put it down on a lunchbreak in the Your Voice On A Record stand. To avoid any squabbling over who kept the acetate, and to give their cover more legitimacy in the eyes of their friend & shared object of awe, they had the record installed in the park's jukebox.

Now, that just can't be, because the jukebox is in a local bar. I think you're making all that up.

But Everybody Who Went To That Bar Started Their Own Band

A former manager at the park took over the bar in 1982, and bought the jukebox off the park's management.

This movie could have been “basic,” but everything about it is a little better than you would expect (if that makes sense)... the performances, the dialogue, etc., are all on a slightly elevated level. Even the song choices are satisfying & effective, without being particularly “adventurous.” I saw & enjoyed it in the theater, and still enjoy watching it on tv.

It’s interesting that Greg Mottola has directed a lot of stuff (and is in the Apatow club)—but it looks like the only other feature he both wrote and directed was The Daytrippers (also good!). He’s clearly a talented guy; I wonder why he’s only gotten two of his own scripts made in 25 years. I guess that’s how it goes sometimes!