This issue, explore two character-driven comedy dramas featuring terrific casts.

"Adventureland"
(R, Now Available)

Some of the best friends I'll ever make, and most of the best stories I have to tell, come from working a lousy minimum wage job where dignity was something I had to fight for every day. It was a battle I often lost. So I know exactly where Greg Mottola (director of "Superbad") was coming from with "Adventureland."

In the summer of 1987, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg, "The Squid and the Whale") was supposed to be going on a trip to Europe to celebrate graduating college. Unfortunately, his parents (Jack Gilpin and Wendy Malick) can no longer afford to pay for it as they promised and, with almost no money of his own, James needs to get himself a summer job to pay for graduate school in New York. With extremely limited work experience, the only job James can get is at Adventureland, a Pittsburgh theme park run by a kooky couple (Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig) who love their jobs far more than they should.

It doesn't take long for James to realize how awful this job really is. He loses a giant panda to a dishonest dad at knife point in his first couple of days. The only things making it worthwhile are the friends he's making who have been suffering there for ages.

Joel (Martin Starr, "Freaks and Geeks") shows James the ropes while Em (Kristen Stewart) catches James's eye. It ends up being the best and worst time of his life all at once.

"Adventureland" was marketed as a silly teen comedy with a whiff of nostalgia to it, and it looked enjoyable enough, but this was a huge disservice to it. Greg Mottola has written and directed a film that captures the joys, frustrations, and boredom of working at a job like this--the on-the-clock gripe sessions, standing around after work trading cynical wisecracks, followed by an impromptu house party at a co-worker's. This makes for a very funny but also incredibly authentic film, filled with well-developed characters, outstanding performances (particularly Eisenberg, Stewart, Starr, and a toned down Ryan Reynolds), and some truly heartbreaking moments. Comedy and drama are rarely balanced as well as they are here. The budding romance between James and Em doesn't feel like something out of a goofy teen comedy, because that's just not what "Adventureland" is.

I enjoyed just about every moment of "Adventureland," even the more painful ones. I loved that although it's set in 1987, the time period is never exploited for cheap gags. We just feel like we're there with no sense of irony. You can tell this movie wasn't made by VH1. The only eighties song that gets pounded into our skulls is Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus," but that's only because poor James has to hear it "twenty times a day" at the park. Anyone who's worked at an "entertainment venue" knows you hear the same music over and over again, all day, every day until you want to kill someone. And then they play the song some more.

This is a great movie about a time in your life you can never forget. Mottola is clearly glad to have left it behind him, but a big part of him misses it too. I know how he feels. 9/10.

"Sunshine Cleaning"
(R, Now Available)

So the producers of "Little Miss Sunshine" have given us a new film with "Sunshine" in the title that features Alan Arkin playing a lovably cantankerous old man. You'd think they're trying to cash in on something here. That said, to simply say it's another "Little Miss Sunshine" would be a disservice to "Sunshine Cleaning," written by Megan Holley and directed by Christine Jeffs.

Rose Lorkowski (the always great Amy Adams) has not really been living the dream. She's making ends meet by cleaning the homes of her more successful former classmates while clinging to the hope of getting her real estate license. All the while, she's having an affair with her married ex-boyfriend, Mac (Steve Zahn).

Mac is an Albuquerque detective who suggests a more lucrative job for Rose--a crime scene cleaner.

"They make good money," he insists, for cleaning up the blood in homes and businesses after the bodies and evidence have been collected. Rose is understandably reluctant but she needs money to get her son (Jason Spevack) out of the nightmarish public school that insists he must be put on medication. She decides to give it a try, enlisting her unmotivated sister Norah (Emily Blunt, "The Devil Wears Prada") to help out.

"Sunshine Cleaning" is filled with dark humor but also enough dramatic heft to maintain a sense of reality. The script does have some flaws. Some things, such as the one-armed cleaning supply salesman (Clifton Collins, Jr.) feel like quirks for quirks' sake. That said, Collins does a fine job with the part. The cast is able to take some of these elements and make a great many of them work.

Adams and Blunt certainly don't look like sisters, but their performances and chemistry are so good we absolutely believe they are. Spevack gives a surprisingly good child performance and Arkin is great, as always.

"Sunshine Cleaning" is a very enjoyable little movie and well worth a rental. 7.5/10.



Also New to DVD and Blu-Ray

Now Available:
Duplicity - 7.5/10
Scrubs: Season 8
House: Season 5
Smallville: Season 8
Californication: Season 2


September 1:
Gladiator (Blu-Ray)
Braveheart (Blu-Ray)
Heroes: Season 3
Sugar (PG-13)