( CNN ) -- Remember the worst job you ever had ? You know , back when there were jobs to be had ? Jesse Eisenberg tries to strike up a relationship with Kristen Stewart in `` Adventureland . '' For writer-director Greg Mottola , it was the summer he spent on hiatus between college and the real world , working as a carny at the local carnival . He 's turned the experience into the basis for the wonderful `` Adventureland . '' Handing out stuffed animals to the lucky customer whose tin horse romps home in first place -- this is not how James ( Jesse Eisenberg from `` The Squid and the Whale '' ) would choose to see himself . The paycheck is dismal , but undeniably commensurate with ( as a character puts it ) `` the work of pathetic , lazy morons , '' which is what it comes down to . Most jobs have their compensations , though . At Adventureland , for James , the biggest benefit comes in the form of Em ( Kristen Stewart ) , another recent grad with plans to move to New York in the fall , and who is n't entirely disdainful of his company . Last time out of the gate Mottola enjoyed a hit with the spectacularly lewd `` Superbad , '' an angle that Miramax Films is understandably keen to play up in the marketing this time around . At first glance the cap seems to fit . James ' sexual experience -- or rather the lack of it -- is a defining element in the story . `` Adventureland '' comes with the usual farcical peccadilloes of teen comedy -- barf gags , car wrecks and inopportune erections -- as well as several familiar supporting players from the Judd Apatow stable . Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are engagingly upbeat as the mutually besotted park managers , and Martin Starr ( from `` Freaks and Geeks '' ) is James ' cerebral , pipe-smoking buddy , Joel . ( Mottola directed a couple of episodes of Apatow 's short-lived Fox series `` Undeclared . '' ) There 's also an extended cameo from Ryan Reynolds , an actor whose faintly supercilious good looks have graced innumerable dumb slacker comedies , including `` Van Wilder , '' `` Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle '' and `` Waiting . '' Yet , after an initial flurry of gross guffaws , the movie edges toward something rather different : a nuanced , sensitive coming-of-age story that finds its heart in post-adolescent romantic turmoil . Obviously adept with actors , Mottola respects his characters too much to let first impressions stick . The relationships in `` Adventureland '' are much richer , and stickier , for it . The understanding that James arrives at with his father ( Jack Gilpin ) , for example , is delineated in just a handful of looks and glances between them , but it 's enough to imply the older man 's resignation at his fate , and his appreciation for James ' tacit sympathy . It 's in moments like these ( and there are a number of them ) that we 're reminded Mottola made a fine indie movie , `` The Daytrippers , '' more than a decade ago now , another sharp and tender comic distillation of family bonds and fractures . Blessed with comical seriousness , Eisenberg is like a young Woody Allen : fretful , intelligent , naive and deluded . And like Allen , he seems to enjoy more than his fair share of luck with the opposite sex . Still , `` Adventureland '' makes more effort than `` Superbad '' -- not that hard admittedly -- to develop a character for Stewart . Looking wan and pensive ( the `` Twilight '' star always looks in need of a good night 's sleep ) , Stewart as Em gives the impression she 's living life more acutely than the others . She seems to have more on the line . Set in the mid-'80s , the film suggests the period unobtrusively , but predominantly through pop music . Lou Reed provides sweet relief to repeated bursts of Falco 's `` Rock Me Amadeus . '' Yes , in retrospect , that 's exactly what being young in 1987 was like . A mature movie about immature young people , `` Adventureland '' may be too muted to succeed in today 's marketplace , too sensitive for its own good . Like an anxious parent , a critic can only send it on its way and hope the world treats it well . `` Adventureland '' is rated R and runs 107 minutes . For Entertainment Weekly 's take , click here .
`` Adventureland '' is about a young man spending a summer in a crummy carnival . Tom Charity : Film pays attention to teen movie clichés but goes much deeper . Director Greg Mottola cares about characters , making movie richer , Charity says .