The 80s and early 90s are often recognized for the films they produced that, for the first time, really seemed to resonate with young adults and adolescent youth.
It is a timeless tradition as old as movies themselves to market and promote films geared towards teenagers and young adults because after all, who goes to the movies more then highschool kids? But the great thing about this time period was that for the first time the films being made actually caused kids to examine their lives, connect with the characters, be affirmed in knowing that, "I'm not the only one that feels this way!" instead of just selling tickets and packing seats to the latest slapstick comedy or Friday the 13th picture (not that there's anything wrong with that!) We all know what movies I'm talking about, "Sixteen Candles", "Ferris Buellers Day Off", "Say Anything", "Pretty in Pink" yada yada yada you get my point, all great pictures, all held in very high regard. Adventureland is every bit as good as these classics.
Now, I don't want to go off on a tangent of simply summing up, or trying to sum up the movie Adventureland, that's boring, no one wants that and I'll leave it up to anyone that reads this to take matters into their own hands of watching or not watching it. I will however state that Adventureland is an incredible coming of age story and it blows my mind that when it was released in 2009 no one seemed to recognize or care. When, had this movie been released in the 80s and been directed by John Hughes everyone would have thought it was brilliant.
I guess I'm kind of painting perhaps a slightly untrue picture since the movie actually did get better then average reviews but I feel like it was just critics saying "hey the dude that made 'Superbad' made another pretty cool movie. there isn't much else out, go see it" and not "hey go buy this movie immediately and keep it on your dvd shelf in between 'The Breakfast Club' and 'The Outsiders'"
I for one choose to blame those obnoxious twilight movies for being the cause of why Adventureland isn't resting high upon the pedestal it deserves to be on. I guess no one wanted to see Kristen Stewart in a movie that actually didn't suck. But she was amazing in Adventureland and I'm fairly convinced she could be our next Molly Ringwald.
Kristen if you're out there...
please stop making twilight. You're so much better then that, you deserve the world, I believe in you.
Love Always, Zach xoxo
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oh my gosh, i am in love with this movie!!!! i blogged on this too! check it out. i can honestly say this movie is one of favorites. ask matt j.! we saw it together
ReplyDeleteyeah i read your blog when i went to type "adventureland" in the like tag box and it already came up haha. such a good movie!
ReplyDeleteit really is! that sound track is the icing on the cake, man. seriously! i felt transported back to the 80's and the nostalgia of all of that. the movie is just a perfect encapsulation of the preciousness of youth and all the growing pains that go with that . . . i seriously cry at some parts
ReplyDeleteone more thing. you're so right. today's youth don't seem to know a good thing when it hits them in the face. every other generation's youth could. the 80's had john hughes, like you said; maybe the 90's had 'clueless', or 'ten things i hate about you' or 'american pie'. lol not on the same level, though. but the movies today's youth flock toward are these worthless, sub-par twilight, harry potter stuff. hmmmm. adventureland is leaps and bounds above all that hype and it barely made a blip on the radar screen. for a movie that i cherish beyond words, i do sort of like the fact that not a lot of people caught on; it's almost like we're 'in the know', like it's some gnostic secret to the true meaning of movies or something, lol
ReplyDeleteYeah i totally feel ya, this movie hit me pretty hard. I made a cocktail immediately after watching haha. another thing that i think didnt help the commercial success of the movie was the fact that who ever was in charge of the marketing campaign was a freaking idiot. all the trailers and tv spots i ever saw for the movie made it seem like it was just a goofy summer comedy and not a heartfelt, touching, funny, twist of life drama. that is the main reason i hadn't watched up til now, i just thought it was gonna be a run of the mill comedy so i put it on the back burner for awhile then when i finally watched i was seriously blown away.
ReplyDeletesame here; marketing sucked! i think me and matt saw it thinking it was going to be another Superbad, but it was nothing like it, and it was still great! I think i've watched the movie 9 or 10 times now, and i've gotten something different from each time. it's on youtube for now, fyi.
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