Goofs

When James bump into the tree, at first is front glasses is broken, but in the next scene when is mother wake him up the glass is in perfect shape.

When James applies for a job at Adventureland, he is wearing both straps of his backpack during the first shot, but in the next shot he's wearing only one strap on his right shoulder. This error repeats when he first speaks to Bobby.

In one scene there is a Ferris-Wheel in the background behind James. In the next shot the Ferris-Wheel is mysteriously gone.

Emily's Pacer: In scenes while driving the car has dark diamond style cloth/vinyl seats, but in scenes where you see the whole car / it is parked, the seats are all light brown with no diamond like pattern.

When James is calling the horse race for the second time, when the camera shows the horses the purple horse is in the race but when the camera closes up on James, the purple horse is still in the home/stationary position, but when the camera shows the horses returning to the home position the purple is moving back again.

Near the end of the movie after James finds out about Em & Connell, Wang Chung's "Dance Hall Days" can be heard playing over the park's loudspeakers. If you have subtitles on, the subtitle states "Safety Dance" (by Men Without Hats) as the song playing.

When James and Em are talking during the party at Em's house, "I'm in Love with a Girl" is playing on the turntable, which is the last song on Big Star's "Radio City" album. However, the record is actually playing the second groove, which is the song "Back of a Car."

Near the end of the scene where James and Em are riding the bumper cars, the shot is reversed and the 'Games' text on James' shirt is backwards.

When Em and James are smoking pot outside, Em's breath is visible suggesting the air is freezing even though it's supposed to be the middle of summer.

Near the end of the film when James punches Tommy in the groin he clearly misses him. Jesse Eisenberg pulls his punch so as not to actually hurt Matt Bush.

When Bobby is calling the race at the horse game, all of the horses are still at the start and none of them are moving.

The story is set during the summer time but several shots show trees starting to change color, indicating it was filmed in the early autumn.

When James and Joel are driving in New York, James smiles and looks out the car window. If you look above the car, you can see an advertisement for 'Sonny with a Chance' - a Disney show which wasn't even made until 2009.

The man wearing the Jack Lambert jersey (Steelers #58) is wearing a style of jersey that wasn't introduced until 1997.

Recent model cars are visible in the background when James is on the bus.

(at around 77 mins) When James and Frigo are driving to Connell's mother's house, you can see brand new Ford trucks and cars in a car lot.

In the New York City scene near the end, the pedestrian signals clearly showed the hand and walking man symbol, which were not used in New York City until the early 2000s. In 1987, the pedestrian signals in the city used text "Walk" and "Don't Walk" indications, rather than the symbols.

When Em is watching the Poison video, "I Want Action", you can clearly see a man in the reflection on the television, but Em is the only person in the room.

When Joel and James are sitting on the hill drinking beers, Joel says that Herman Melville's obituary referred to him as "Henry Melville." There are no obituaries of Melville that refer to him as Henry. His New York Times obituary used his correct name.

Joel asserts that the famous aphorism "Fortune favors the bold' was written by the Roman poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70-19 BC), but in fact, it was written by the Roman playwright Terence (Publius Terentius Afer, 185-159 BC) in his play Phormio. The phrase is often associated with Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid, appearing in book 10 line 284, in a slightly different form. The overeducated Joel should know better.