On Movies: For a third time, he's back to 1987

Jesse Eisenberg has appeared in two movies now in which he essentially plays the filmmaker as a young man: In The Squid and the Whale, he's the teenage Noah Baumbach, looking on as his parents' marriage falls apart.

In Adventureland, he's director Greg Mottola as an innocent college grad, taking a summer job at a ramshackle amusement park, and falling in love.

"In The Squid and the Whale, I felt like I was taking a lot from the director in terms of mannerisms and behavior," Eisenberg says. "With Greg, in Adventureland, I felt more of a natural kinship with him, so it was just about making the role feel right. Greg is so gracious and earnest, almost to a fault - that's really Greg."

On the phone from Atlanta, where he's wrapping a road movie/horror comedy called Zombieland (with Abigail Breslin, Woody Harrelson, and Emma Stone), Eisenberg says that another thing Squid/Whale and Adventureland have in common is the era: Both are set in 1987.

Eisenberg, a New Yorker, was 4 years old back then. In Adventureland, which opened Friday, his character, James, is smart but naive, a virgin, a pothead, awkward and earnest. He's 22, but it's a different sort of 22 than you'd encounter nowadays.

"I think a lot about that - about the kind of small adjustments you have to make to play someone around my age, living 20 years ago," says the actor, who is 25. "At the risk of sounding pretentious, I do think there is a slight modulation. . . . There's less savvyness. When you think of modern teenagers, they're so incredibly savvy and knowing, and possibly jaded.

"And not that there weren't cynical, savvy, jaded kids in the '80s, but, like, at least for me, it helped to have a little more innocence somehow."

Mottola, who directed The Daytrippers and the 2007 hit Superbad, gave his cast - Ryan Reynolds and Kristen Stewart among them - CDs with music from the period, music layered into several key scenes in the film: songs by Lou Reed, David Bowie, the Cure, Big Star, and that timeless classic by Falco, "Rock Me Amadeus." The tunes helped Eisenberg get in the mood, and in character. There's a sweet and funny scene in which James gives Stewart's character, Em, a mix cassette (yes, a cassette) of the best bummer songs he knows.

"The movie I'm doing now, Zombieland, is very modern, there are a lot of pop culture references in it, and they're funny," he says.

"It makes it current, and the relationship to the audience changes a bit, because we're kind of representing them, as opposed to this nostalgic feeling. So, yeah, it's different. It's not like doing an 18th-century costume drama, but it does change things."

Eisenberg became good friends with his Adventureland leading lady, Stewart, during the shoot. The film was made in Pittsburgh, before the actress went off to star in Twilight.

"Somebody had sent her the book in the mail," recalls Eisenberg. "We were passing the book around, reading it outloud. Who knew it was going to become this phenomenon?"

Eisenberg is signed on to a number of small independents, including one in which he'll star as the poet Allen Ginsburg during his college days. He's also done Holy Rollers, playing a young Hasid in Brooklyn, N.Y., who becomes an Ecstasy dealer. It's from a true story.

Eisenberg has also written a play, The Revisionist, which he says is this close to being mounted. In fact, he's been talking to the folks at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia about opening it here. It's about a twentysomething science-fiction writer who goes to Poland to visit an elderly cousin who's a Holocaust survivor.

"We just need one more producer to come on board," says the budding playwright. "If you know of anyone who's interested, have them get in touch."

Rush to judgment. I Love You, Man isn't the only movie out there right now celebrating those icons of rock-and-roll, the Canadian power trio Rush.

Paul Rudd and Jason Segel jam to "Tom Sawyer" and attend a Rush reunion concert, and "Limelight" shows up on the I Love You, Man soundtrack.

But there's also a funny bit in Adventureland in which one of the amusement park employees breaks out his drumsticks and offers up an inspiring impromptu version of "Limelight." Rush rules.

Short subjects. Quentin Tarantino's much-discussed World War II movie, Inglourious Basterds (most of the discussion has been coming from Tarantino himself - he's been hyping it for years), gets its world premiere next month at the Cannes Film Festival. Brad Pitt leads a troop of Jewish American soldiers on a Nazi-hunt through France. . . . Jason Bateman, George Clooney, and Vera Farmiga are doing Up in the Air, based on Walter Kirn's novel about a business guy (Clooney) trying to notch his millionth frequent-flier mile. Juno's Jason Reitman is directing. . . . Nicole Kidman has signed up for Woody Allen's untitled 2009 project with Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Freida Pinto, and Naomi Watts already on board. Kidman and Watts, of course, are close pals.

Fest alert. Ramin Bahrani, in town this week to show his sad and beautiful Goodbye Solo at the Philadelphia Film Festival / Cinefest '09, says the must-see movie running at the festival this weekend is Treeless Mountain, from South Korea's So Yong Kim. The film, about two vagabond children, screens at the Ritz East at 2:45 p.m. today. If you've seen Bahrani's Man Push Cart and / or Chop Shop, you'll know to trust the guy's opinion.