DVD Roundup: Adventureland, Goodbye Solo & More
Three New DVD Releases Offer Experiences from Charming to Excellent
Aug 25, 2009
Greg Mottolla surpasses his own great Superbad to craft what may well be the penultimate teen film (adding another note of poignancy to the recent passing of John Hughes), one deserving of Citizen Kane status in its insight, emotional depth, and yes, entertainment. Far and away from the rank exploits of the American Pie films, Adventureland's concerns are those of life itself (as opposed to processed Hollywood fantasy), and like any story well told and worth telling, the details here build to more than their total sum.
Adolescent Comedy For the Grown-Up Crowd
The summer of 1987 goes topsy-turvy for James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) when bungled finances dash hopes of a post-grad, pre-college trip to Europe, landing him at a local amusement park for money saving purposes. It is there that he unexpectedly grows up, as it were, he and his (mostly antisocial) coworkers reflecting the world at large in their effortlessly rendered, detail-oriented archetypal roles (the dreamer, the cheerleader, the loner, etc.). A pitch-perfect sense of place is key to the savory pleasures herein, as the use of scenery and space compounds the intimacy afforded by the bubbly cast (including Ryan Reynolds and Twilight's Kristen Stewart, both playing admirably against the grain) and prismatic, poetic kino eye. Though peppered with specific details from its stated era, Adventureland's truths are those of the timeless sort, making this one for the ages. 3.5 stars out of 4.
Understated Drama of Friendship and Despair
The films of Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, Chop Shop) seem the perfect stepping stone for moviegoers in search of excitement outside the multiplex. As structurally assured any emotionally direct as any number of well-regarded box office behemoths (recent standard setters like Iron Man and Spider-Man 2 come to mind), his films stand as the introverted equivalent to customary Hollywood pizazz. Like its predecessors, the focus of Goodbye Solo isn't so much the acts committed by its characters, but the motivations that drive them.
While effects are obvious, causes remain elusive, and so it is in the unexplained details that this story - that of a cab driver, Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane), who is commissioned by the bitter, depressed William (Red West) to drive him to a remote mountain location, possibly the commit suicide - gains its substantive emotional heft. The life lived by William never comes into full focus, while the utterly selfless Solo finds himself in the unusual predicament of wanting to help someone seemingly determined to not be saved. Fine performances all around act like vital organs within the body of Bahrani's resonant chamber piece; emotions reverberate and settle, but never dissipate. Whatever your reading of the final events, the compassion displayed beforehand is an invaluable asset worth carrying into daily life. 3 stars out of 4.
Quirky Dramedy Offers Fleeting Entertainment
Cute and fluffy without quite spilling over into quirky treacle, the relatively pleasant Sunshine Cleaning nevertheless perpetuates the dominance of highly manufactured alternative cinema over the legitimately independent (another film title containing sunshine comes readily to mind). That a film concerning the clean-up of crime scenes, suicides and bodily residues achieves so effervescent a tone speaks less to a mishandling of dark material than it does these character's necessarily happy-go-lucky approach to the stresses of life, though even from this vantage point, Sunshine Cleaning only scratches the surface of life's joys and despairs.
Behind on careers and romance, Rose (Amy Adams) takes up biohazard removal with her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) as an extension of her housecleaning experience, at first for the bigger paycheck but ultimately for the satisfying role afforded in the lives of others. A subplot concerning the adherence to image and status in society is the most satisfying strand in a narrative that ultimately goes the way of conventional dramatic incidence (in which a simply accident tarnishes all that came beforehand), a glaring misstep from which it never fully recovers. Still, Sunshine Cleaning proves not entirely insubstantial, even as the bulk evaporates from the mind with but a few moments' hindsight. 2 stars out of 4.
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