Looking for ‘Adventureland’

Long before he died three weeks ago, audiences and critics were looking for the “next John Hughes.” Fans with a keen eye may have already found one in Greg Mottola. After releasing the underappreciated, Steven Soderbergh-produced comedy Daytrippers back in the 1990s, Mottola cut his teeth in TV by directing Judd Apatow’s Undeclared and Ron Howard’s Arrested Development. Two years ago, his lauded teen flick Superbad drew the first consistent comparisons to Hughes, and now out on DVD and Blu-ray is his latest film, the wistful, twilight-of-youth dramedy, Adventureland. Set a very Hughesian 1987, the film is a coming-of-age story for Jesse Eisenberg’s shy, pre-graduate school protagonist and the host of friends and enemies he meets working at a run-down theme park for the summer. Bill Hader, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds and Kristen Wiig co-star. Rated R.