Adventureland and the Long Hangover of Youth
By Conor Mallon
I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon,
Nor brought too long a day,
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away! [1]
Thomas Hood’s 1826 nostalgic poems expresses a longing for a simpler time. Hood highlights the transitional loss of innocence as we as individuals inevitably progress from childhood naivety to adult cynicism. Nature’s beauty refers to the beautiful joy of childhood that Hood eventually loses in his feeble journey towards death.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to watch Gregg Mottola’s 2009 romantic comedy-drama film Adventureland. Mottola known for the raunchy, drug infused 2007 comedy Superbad ditches the sex jokes to explore complex ideas of depression, lust, yearning, and religion. An active revisionism of Mottola’s own childhood and working of minimum wage jobs, this passion project uses the fictional 1987 amusement park ‘Adventureland’ as an existentialist symbol of the chaotic world around us. [2] The film’s two stars Jessie Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart turn in awkwardly charming performances that perfectly capture first love.
As I return to Queen’s University Belfast for my final term. I look back fondly upon the friends and relationships I have had upon the way, the people that have guided my journey from impressionable to teen to even more impressionable adult. Whilst I share Hood’s longing for youth, I rebuke his cynicism for adulthood, preferring instead to appreciate the ‘good old days’.
References
[1] Hood, Thomas. 2020. “I Remember, I Remember by Thomas Hood.” Poetry Foundation. July 22, 2020. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44387/i-remember-i-remember.
[2] Snyder, S James. 2009. “Q&A: Greg Mottola, from Superbad to Adventureland.” TIME. nextgen. April 3, 2009. https://time.com/archive/6909854/qa-greg-mottola-from-superbad-to-adventureland/.
Mottola, Greg, director. Adventureland. Miramax Films, 2009. 1 hr., 47 min.
Photo Credit: Abbot Genser – ©️ 2007 Miramax Films
