Setting Adventureland in the 80's served no purpose to plot, character, tone or mood so what was the point?
It took me 20 minutes before I even realized that this WAS set in the 80's (in the brief moment when Regan was on TV).
Because it was supposed to be very loosely based on the author's days working at a Long Island amusement park back when he was in high school, I think.
Nothing wrong with a little 80s or reminiscence is there? It was a cool time.
(Although by making James and Em sort of alternative types they did end up seeming like characters who could've been lifted out of the late 90s or even today (or very late 70s/very early 80s) and been more mainstream than for ones from the late 80s, granted hah.)
That would be because the writer of the movie, Greg Mattola, would have been the exact same age as these characters in 1987. He self-indulgently set it in this time period.
shareActually I think he was a number of years older than they were in 1987, which is also why so many seem to feel the film feels more like say 1979-1982 than the 1987 in many ways.
It didn't really feel like it had a point. Even if it was based on the writer's life, if everyone was wearing modern clothes it would seem to be the same plot. Styles and trends were only minorly featured. I didn't feel the absence of computers and cell phones either.
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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.
There was that one scene near the end where James' college buddy told him he was going to Boston instead on NYC. He was talking on a huge early white cell phone or mobile phone.
shareNot that it matters hugely but I'm pretty sure that wasn't an early cell phone but just a cordless home phone. Those first cell phones were rectangular and clunkier.
shareDe-industrialization. The devaluation of college degrees. These were massive shifts in the 1980s. They didn't seem possible in the 1970s or earlier. And they wouldn't have been surprising in the 1990s or later.
For Gen-X'ers like Mottola, the changes in the labor market were like a smack in the groin from Frigo.
"the changes in the labor market"
In what way, shape, or form was this reflected in the film? Besides, this movie's focus isn't about a job, but, rather, the relationships between the characters. The setting is incidental and putting it into the 80's has no purpose. The exact same situations and outcomes could occur between teenagers at any time between 1964-2010.
The lead was a college grad, not a teenager.
He wouldn't be cornered into carnie work in 1964. He may have done it for kicks, like Jack Kerouac. But not to pay the bills.
I know it's long after you posted it, but your brief post pleased me with its accuracy and insight, so thanks for that. I just saw the movie last night, and was interested to read peoples' responses to it. I find it kind of weird, that so many people seem not just bothered by, but hostile to the fact of when the movie is set, and why it's set then. To me, if that's the story the creators want to tell, I don't see why they shouldn't be free to tell it, set whenever they want. Anyway, your comment is more cogent and worthwhile than most here.
Just make a movie that makes me care, one way or another. I'm open.
It's an autobiographical movie. Greg Mottola (Great writer and Director) worked at an amusement Park when he was young.
shareBut didn't he graduate high school in '82 or maybe even earlier? So why set in 1987 when the real 80s didn't even start until '83/'84 and had such a poor sense of the late 80s? Why not just have set it in '81? It would have seemed reasonably realistic for that (although still with a bit of 2009 when it was made mixed in).
Didn't you get that Jesse E.'s character is a college grad, working towards going to grad school? In any case, why shouldn't the writer set the story whenever he wants to? In fact, there are aspects of the story that make sense specifically to that time period, to some degree.
Just make a movie that makes me care, one way or another. I'm open.
Disagree with OP, I think the tone and mood was great, the soundtrack was excellent, and the 80's time frame adds a lot of laughs.
I'm leaving. I've assessed the situation, and I'm going.
Who gives a flying f v ck what era it was filmed in. The filmmakers had there reasons and choose the 80's. It's that simple. Why is that such an issue for you? You got something against the 80's or something?