I love Pittsburgh to the point that even talking about it makes me tear up a bit. Rick Sebak’s voice makes my soul weep. And yet I hate Kennywood. Maybe it’s because I dislike waiting in lines. Perhaps it’s because my parents didn’t have the money to take us there. It could also because they got rid of Garfield’s ride and I’ll never forgive them.

Director and writer Greg Mottola grew up around Adventureland in Farmingdale, New York, but he went to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, where he probably went to Kennywood and realized that it’d be a filmable place to set his movie in which James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg), a recent graduate from Oberlin, has to work at instead of. going to Europe the summer after graduating. There, he meets and falls for Em Lewin (Kristen Stewart), an art history major who teaches him more than he probably learned in college as he spends the hot summer days working in the carny games booths on the midway.

There’s some good casting choices here, like having Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader as the husband and wife owners, Ryan Reynolds as the too old to be sleeping with college kids maintenance man and Wendie Malick as James’ mom.

For some reason, Lou Reed is idolized in this movie. Now, I wasn’t around Kennywood in 1987, but I know that in my hometown, the original choice — Neil Young — is way more Pittsburgh. And outside of the folks that listened to WXXP, hardly anyone in tahn would be listening to Big Star, Hüsker Dü, The New York Dolls and The Jesus and Mary Chain, but hey — it’s a movie.

Beyond being filmed at Kennywood, other scenes were filmed in McCandless, Beaver County and Moon Township around the airport, including the Stardust Lounge.