Revolutionary Road and Adventureland.

Revolutionary Road is a drama from December 2008 about an unsatisfied suburban couple. Adventureland is a coming of age dramedy from April 2009 about a kid who works in a theme park and has relationships.

Both of these are period films; one in the 50's, one in the 80's. And they both kinda deal with people panicking and being unfaithful to the ones they love as they face the shittiness of their immediate future. They just want to live their lives and have fun with their true loves, but they can't! Why? Because of social norms (or lack of money)! It's frustrating to see these characters making mistakes on top of mistakes because they're so out of their fucking minds with unhappiness. But in the end, they're very different movies with very different outcomes.

In many ways, Adventureland is an erotic thriller. Because it starts out as just a simple story about a Michael Cera-esque kid who needs a summer job, but then it becomes entirely about him hooking up with different girls. This isn't necessarily a problem, though I did find problems with the movie. For example, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the weird bosses who run the park. I deeply love these actors, but the humor in their scenes is so absurdly out of place in the unassuming world of Adventureland. It just seems like they were tacked on to make the movie look like it's primarily a comedy, which it isn't. Also, Ryan Reynolds gives the main guy advice that turns out to have some very shady, self-serving purposes, and the main guy never confronts him about it. Which would also be fine, if they explained why he doesn't confront him about it. It's just never addressed.

Revolutionary Road is just really good. Wonderfully directed and performed. And we finally see what Jack and Rose's marriage would have been like in a hypothetical sequel to Titanic. Spoiler alert: Not good.