Review of Adventureland (2009) by Vaughan M — 07 Jun 2016

Hokay, so when I first saw this movie, I LOVED it. Like, haven't-had-a-new-favorite-movie-in-a-long-time LOVED it. I thought it had the lewd humor of "Superbad," the zaniness of "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," and the brain and heart of "Juno.

" But after two rewatches in the past seven years, I've gone from a rave 5-star rating to a fine-but-still-demoralizing 3-star rating. Could it be that I'm over my turn-of-the-century cinematic crushes on intellectual and romantic Jesse Eisenberg and/or withdrawn yet open-book Kristen Stewart? Could it be that in my young adulthood, I've grown jaded by the coolly aimless post-college bildungsroman? The soundtrack, production design, and park hijinx are as whimsically nostalgic as a deep-fried cornmeal-battered sausage on a stick, but my blind spot for the '80s renders this movie a drive down someone else's memory lane.