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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

BD impressions: Adventureland

12:10 PM / BD Impressions / 3 Comments

Of late, there have been quite a few "coming of age" movies set during the 80s but at the same time not really saying anything specific about the decade. I suspect the reason for it is that a number of today's emerging filmmakers themselves grew up during that period and are projecting their own adolescent experiences on to their films. Adventureland definitely falls under this umbrella. It tells the story of a recently graduated college student who finds himself working at a crummy fairground over the summer as he saves up enough money to go to graduate school. It takes place in the late 80s but, apart from the ridiculous clothes and hairstyles of a handful of the supporting characters, you wouldn't know it. It's a pleasant enough, enjoyable little movie, but a slightly vapid one, with the main character acting more like a high school student than someone who has just completed a university degree. It does well to avoid a lot of the trappings usually associated with "coming-of-age-cum-romance" storylines, and while the supporting cast generally consists of the usual clichés and outrageous caricatures designed to bolster the comic relief, the central characters are largely free of these generalisations and manage to transcend the generic trappings of the narrative. Oh, and Kristen Stewart, who was so good in Panic Room, finally redeems herself after The Messengers and Twilight... but I wish she'd stop touching her damn hair all the time.

Image quality: Largely a very pleasing presentation, although a quick glance at the opening credits or the two production logos at the start does show slight ringing, suggesting that the image may have been very lightly filtered (or perhaps less than ideal downscaling from a higher resolution source). It's an extremely minor issue, and one that I can't say I ever found to be a problem during the film itself, presumably owning to the relatively soft look of the material resulting in a dearth of sharp edges to show up the ringing. Somewhat more problematically, the blacks have a slightly blue-purple tint to them, which as you can imagine becomes something of an issue during darker scenes. At first we thought this might be a calibration issue, but we've checked the disc on three displays now, all with the same results. (And, for what it's worth, Adam Tyner, one of the few truly reliable reviewers out there, spotted the same issue.) Could it be an issue with the film stock used? It's hard to say, but however it ended up there, it's a tad distracting. That said, I have no other complaints about this generally impressive transfer, which retains a film-like veneer throughout and has a more than pleasing amount of detail. 8/10

Adventureland
studio: Buena Vista; country: USA; region code: A; codec: AVC;
file size: 29.6 GB ; average bit rate (including audio): 39.71 Mbit/sec

3 Comments

 
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