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    Paper Towns

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    When “Paper Towns” kicked off, I smelled trouble. I thought “here we go, one of these teenage drama films where the manic pixie dream girl comes in and fixes all of the problems of our main character by showing him how to be truly alive”. The further it went in, the more I realized that this is not that kind of movie and by the end of it, I have to give credit to the film, which is a lot smarter than I thought it was going to be. This mystery teen comedy-drama based on the novel of the same name follows Quentin “Q” Jacobsen (Nat Wolff) he lives across the street from the talk of the school and the love of his life, Margo Roth Spiegelman (Cara Delevingne) She’s the kind of girl that will go out and have adventures in the middle of the night if she hears that some wrong is being done or simply feels like getting away from everyday boring life. We’re not just talking about once in a while either, but consistently, to the point where it isn’t all that unusual for her to disappear for days. After an all-night adventure that Q finds himself complicit in, he believes that he and Margo have finally connected (right in time for Prom) That’s when Margo disappears. Following the clues she has left behind, Q and his best friends (including Austin Abrams as Ben and Justice Smith as “Radar”) decide to head off on an adventure to solve this mystery.

    Before I go into talking about what works in this film, I need to tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t a comedy where a bunch of guys go on a road trip in order for one (or more) of them to lose their virginity. It also isn’t the kind of movie where two people just need to share 5 minutes of screen time to fall in love, and it isn’t one of those stories where a guy gets rewarded for putting friendship tokens in the magic one day by receiving sex/a relationship. It isn’t a series of increasingly implausible adventures and it isn’t a film that teaches us that you absolutely need to get with a guy/girl or else your life is over. That’s not to say that there aren’t wild events, moments of heart, evolving relationships or even a scene where the guy gets the girl... it’s just handled in a way that isn’t at all like you would expect to see. This is completely different from those truly awful romantic comedies starring Jessica Alba or Kate Hudson, where the attractive girl is unable to find a boyfriend or is inexplicably dating an absolute jerk until that meek, spineless slug of a guy she’s known all her life can come to her rescue.

    I will surrender to you that there are some flaws with the film. As charmed as I was with the story, there are some points where you just have to “go with it” in the sense that these characters are going to go on a wild adventure following clues to solve this mystery no matter what real life would tell us and there are a couple of moments where it rubbed me the wrong way. An example would be where Margo’s parents are shown as completely exasperated that their daughter has gone missing and they decide not to file a police report because she’s done this many times before and Q thinks to himself “yeah, parents of the year, am I right? ” Maybe it’s the adult in me talking but Margo’s an adult at this point and if she decides to run away, I don’t blame her parents for not freaking out completely, not in this world where going on the road means discovering something about yourself and having the time of your life. There were just a few moments here and there where I thought the relationships might have been moving a bit too quickly, evidence that the book is obviously a lot longer and shows the internal thoughts of the characters a lot more.

    With that dealt with, let me tell you what I liked about this movie. First of all, I like that it surprised me by having characters that are not just the typical cardboard cuttouts you would find in a teenage comedy. These are people who move in the world independently from each other, are capable of changing and of making both good and bad decisions. Over the course of the film they grow up and discover things about themselves. While Margo might be a character that isn’t necessarily realistic, as she would be more at home in Gotham City setting up traps for Batman to solve, she isn’t the focus of the movie. She’s the odd woman out in a world where most of the other people are pretty realistic, if exaggerated in the same way that movie teenagers that are in John Hughes-type films are. You like these characters and I enjoyed going on this Scooby-Doo mystery trip of theirs. I was really curious as to where the mystery was going to go because I found Margo to be a fun character to watch. I like that she is the kind of girl that goes on adventures even if no one is willing to follow her and that if you cross her, she’s willing to pull some Count of Monte Cristo scale revenge on you, but she’s not necessarily this wonderful prize to be sought out and won. You find out things about her that make her into a more three-dimensional person.

    I like the humor in the film and I also enjoyed the heart of it all. This is a story about growing up, and a story about friends going on a wild adventure. This movie makes me grateful for the wild trips (well, not that wild) that my high-school friends and I went on because it reminded me of the good times I had with them, even if it’s been more than ten years and I’m sure I’m remembering some of the details wrong. Honestly, I was also just happy to see a road trip adventure where everyone DIDN’T bump into Leatherface and the Hewitt family. It’s cool to have a reminder that going on a trip with your friends where the objective seems completely logical (even if it isn’t) will be an enjoyable one. I’m not going to say that this movie is necessarily realistic, but I’d like to think that it’s idealistic in that it makes me want to go on a road trip chasing some wild errand with my best buddies singing songs, ensuring that no more than 5 minutes of bathroom breaks are taken in a day so that we make it to our destination on time and that we all leave richer than we left... but not in terms of cash.

    I know this movie is being sold to teenage girls, but as a guy who graduated high school ten years ago, seeing this movie with a high-school friend of mine not unlike Q (I’m more like the cool Radar or the funny Ben) I was reminded of a lot of warm times we had together and I really enjoyed myself. I liked seeing these characters and it moved me just a little bit. Something about “Paper Towns” really struck a cord with me. I didn’t know if I was going to like it, and it took a little bit of time for me to warm up to it but once I saw that this is a story written with characters that do get fleshed-out and has some intelligent things to say, I was completely on board. (Theatrical version on the big screen, July 28, 2015)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  1.8.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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