| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
B |
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Go On The Ride
by DanM (movies profile)
Apr 8, 2009
8
of
10 people found this review helpful
It's crushing to see a magnificent film fall into the cracks. Start with a film from a director who has done one kind of piece, then market it almost identically despite the fact that it's nothing similar. Then give it an "R" rating to assure that no one of appropriate age can see it, and that it crashes at the box office. And, BTW...on what planet comprised entirely of cream cheese and crack did this movie get an "R" rating??? "For language, drug use, and sexual references?" Christ, half the people in America that are doing those things aren't old enough to see this film! It's good to know that you and your friends can watch giant, naked breasts hacked off with chainsaws without mommy and daddy's interference, but this sweet, touching, perfect snapshot of a bygone era is for some inexplicable reason "off limits" to the very market that would benefit from seeing it most. Way to go, MPAA.
This film is so understated, so pitch-perfect in so many ways, that it's a reminder of how emotionally tone-deaf cinema has become in this country. Even the people who are in the act of betraying one another do it with such tenderness and sensitivity that you're reminded of the dreaded truth that very few of us are villains in this world; most of us are just selfish people who'd like to be better but can't figure out how.
The characters are true, the situations, while trumped up in spots, do not go over the top (or deviate from homologs from my own experience), and the performances nuanced in ways that aren't usually native to the coming-of-age genre. I'm a huge Kristen Stewart fan, and she doesn't disappoint. Nor does the insanely hot Russian girl from "The Invisible," who plays spot-on 80's dance ditz Lisa P. And the young male cast is as improv-funny as any of the other veterans of the Judd Apatow school.
There are a few minor bumps in the road, from the oft-lamented underuse of Kristen Wiig and the guy who plays her husband (blanking on his name, unfortunately) to a perhaps too-aggressively tidy ending. But the trip to "Adventureland" is more than worth the price of admission.
It's too bad you have to be at least THIIIIIS tall to get on the ride. :^/ |
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