A movie I recently watched is called Adventureland, directed by Greg Mottola. The movie was filmed in 2009, but set in the summer of 1987. It is a coming of age of age story where the main character, James Brennan, has to get a job at a sad little amusement park to pay for graduate school at Columbia. The park's staff is full of young college students, all growing up and unsure of their future. Each character is interesting and full of life even the minor characters. For example, James goes on a couple dates with Lisa P, the park's bombshell. Lisa P. is not a main character, but she could still be considered a dynamic character, endowed with the ability to change. The whole movie has a sweet, nostalgic theme. The movie's soundtrack definitely included tunes that are true to the decade it was set in, like "Your Love" by The Outfield. Further, the song "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco is played on repeat while the amusement park is open. This element of the movie synchronized diegetic and non-diegetic audio when James shouted at his co-workers in frustration over the repetitiveness of that song. However, there were no excessive pop culture references; no giant hairstyles or 80s paraphernalia, unlike Stranger Things. Adventureland seamlessly integrated its references to the 1980s.
In my opinion, this movie has a way of subtly going beyond an average coming of age story. Director Greg Mottola admitted that this story was largely based on his own experience working in an amusement park. Therefore, there is a lot of truth in this movie about the messiness of relationships and making mistakes while growing up. Another component I loved of this movie is how the innocence of the theme park is juxtaposed to the scandals happening with the staff. After operating the games and rides of Adventureland, the staff is gossiping, partying, and holding secret relationships. My only critique of this film is the expected happy ending, which most coming of age stories have. Besides that, I think this movie was extremely well developed and realistic. Because of that, I would put it in the "Good, Good" category.
Great review here, Delia! Your objective/subjective distinction is very clear, and both paragraphs do a nice job of staying specific. Keep pushing the tone in the objective paragraph-- the positivity is clear, but you can always keep going and extract even more value from the film. Glad you liked the movie! I love the scene with Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig where they're making the prizes.
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