Tuesday, November 24, 2009

My top ten movies of the decade-#8

One I knew would make it on the list but I wasn't sure where, was the best movie I've seen his year, Greg Mottola's coming-of-age/the-summer-that-changed-everything movie Adventureland. Since I've written about it twice previously, I'll just repost some of my thoughts.

Adventureland is the most wonderfully realized, delicately crafted, and emotionally affecting movie about young people that I've ever seen. It captures a moment in time that didn't even exist in my life, yet I connect to it so deeply I almost can't explain it.

There's not a single moment in the movie that rings false to me, and so many moments that transcend the maligned "young adult/teen" genre. Of course, it's not about "teens", it's about people just out of college realizing that their studies in Comparative Literature or Russian and Slavic Languages don't mean much in the real world. It's also about those fragile feelings of first love, real friendship, jealousy, and taking the wrong advice because you don't know any better yet. More than anything really, it's the story of first love. But because everything is so carefully constructed, capturing life, the feeling of real life, it's about much more than that simple genre description might allude to. Sure, it's not documentary-esque real life, it's idealized and nostalgic, but in the best way possible.

1 comment:

Kathy said...

Ok in my opinion, but didn't think it was as great as you did.