[Streaming movies—on services such as Netflix—are ephemeral: Here one day, gone the next. The purpose of the Now Streaming series—written by film critic Jeffrey M. Anderson—is to alert you to what movies are new to streaming, what you might want to watch before it disappears, and other cinema treasures that are worth checking out.]

Adventureland

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Following up his hit Superbad, director Greg Mottola conjured up Adventureland an even more soulful, nuanced look at a wasted summer. In Pittsburgh, circa 1987, James (Jesse Eisenberg) finds that he can’t afford to go to college and ends up working at the local theme park, Adventureland, for the summer. He encounters romantic rivals, childhood demons, drugs, and the stirrings of love with co-worker Kirsten Stewart (her best role, by far). Best of all, the movie manages to capture a specific mood between the plot points, and anyone that has ever whiled away a summer in a meaningless job will recognize that familiar feel. (You’ll be glad, however, that your job did not include frequent spins of “Rock Me Amadeus.”)

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