Greetings,
Is it just me or are those "coming of age" movies part of the most hit or miss genre of all time? And I'm not just talking about some films being good and some being bad. I mean that within the movie there are parts the either really work or really do not. I've always felt this way, and - Holy Smokes! - was that feeling confirmed when I saw the film I am going to talk about today, Paper Towns.
Paper Towns is a 2015 movie based on the 2008 novel of the same name by John Green. More on him later. Anyway, the story follows Quentin, played by Nat Wolff, a young man in his final year of high school. He is nice and smart, has great friends, a supportive family and what I would call a very unhealthy obsession with the girl next door. Oh, yeah. We're going there. For the past eleven years, he has lived across the street from Margo Roth Spiegelman, played by Cara Delevigne, a little girl with whom he develops a close friendship, wherein they are defined as "partners in crime". As a child, Margo just seems very adventurous with ambitions of being mysterious. As a teenager, she becomes one of the most despicable cinematic characters in my recent memory. Or maybe she's not. I don't know because this model they hired for unknown reasons, other than "because she's a model", is not such a great actress (See Cindy Crawford in the 1995 movie Fair Game for more analysis on that). Point is, she is purporting herself, as is everyone else, as being far more interesting than she actually is. Look, there's nothing fascinating about using capital letters in the middle of a sentence because the lower case ones feel left out. I mean, it was cute when Vanessa Hudgeons did the number thing in Bandslam, but her character was enjoyable enough to back it up. Oh, and Margo pretty much uses Quentin to do her bidding and ultimately treats him like crap. In my opinion. And yet, I think they want us to like her, not to mention the way they expect me to believe that this quirky, indie, living outside the box girl is tight with the popular jocks and cheerleader types. My response to all of that is this: DENIED. For real, entertainment industry, stop trying to make me like awful people. We already had that girl on Glee. We don't need any more of that. Sorry for the rant. Back to the plot.
After some narration from Quentin, talking about how he and Margo have grown apart over the years, and a night where she drags him around breaking the law, she up and disappears. Hosanna! Unfortunately, he decides to go on a road trip to find her. Of course, when I say "unfortunately", I say it in regards to this poor boy who just doesn't get it. For the movie, it is quite fortunate. Not only do we get rid of that obnoxious character, we get to the real meat of the story and the best thing about it. As I said, Quentin wants to go off and find Margo, but he can't go alone, so he takes with him his two best friends, Ben and Radar, played by Austin Abrams and Justice Smith, as well as Radar's girlfriend, Angela, played by Jaz Sinclair, and Lacey, played by Halston Sage, who is one of Margo's friends. Now I do like the girls both actress and character wise, but I super like Ben and Radar. They're sweet and funny and - Oh, look at that - LOYAL! Yes, these friends are everything that Margo Roth Spiegelman is not. So, I spent the whole time hoping that Quentin would get it. Get who his real friends are and get who he should really be concerned about and giving his time to. Does he? Well, that would constitute me giving away the ending and I don't want to do that.
So, like I said before, I'm on the fence about this one when I break it down. When it comes to the story, I'd have to go to my feelings about John Green. And my feelings on him are...meh. Yeah, I don't really care for him as a writer. I know it's sacrilege to say that these days, but too bad. I have my opinion. I'm not saying he's a terrible writer. He's not. He's just not someone who I find particularly exceptional. I would call him a trendy writer. It seems that people starting reading his books because other people told them to do so, whether they actually wanted to or not. Not to say that trendy things can't have staying power. I just don't know if we'll be studying him in the class room in fifty years. As always, though, if you think his books are good and you get joy out of reading them, I am sincerely happy for you, and I won't try to stop you. This is just my taste. And my taste dictates that some of this story is good and some of it is not.
I will make a point of saying this, though. I know I said that I like the Quentin character, but even better, I am really starting to like Nat Wolff as an actor. I was never too crazy about him, mostly because he played some characters that I found annoying, usually an annoying little brother. But, wow, he is really growing up and turning into a fine, young actor, so I'd say that is my favorite aspect of the film. And I hope he continues on this path, because I am looking forward to more of it.
Okay, let's finish up. Would I recommend Paper Towns? Sure, why not? It's worth a watch, again, if you like those coming of age movies... especially from the 80's. Seriously, had this have been made in that decade, the words "Starring John Cusack" would have been involved. Yeah, good times, indeed. So, if you can get yourself through the Margo scenes, you will be rewarded with some better stuff. This means thumbs up, but a thumb held up at about a 71 degree angle.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
