Margos Spuren

The first twenty minutes absolutely blew me away, totally enjoyable, when she'd disappeared I honestly thought it was going to be a kind of Gone Girl thriller, wrong, it fell somewhere between Road Trip and the Goonies. After adjusting to what essentially became a teenage road trip movie I kind of enjoyed it, there were some entertaining moments. I couldn't help feeling a little bit robbed, it had been set up so well, it literally felt like a different film after her disappearance.

The ending at least was one that decided not to pander to audience satisfaction, a little sour but interesting. As always with this kind of film the usual clichés are there in full, point zero as is the rule is the prom, they always have to be motivated by the prom.

Interesting casting, Nat Wolff was very good as Quentin, he didn't overplay it, very enjoyable. I will applaud the decision to cast Cara as Margo, maybe not the top of many lists but I felt her personality and natural self gave Margo her enigma and mysterious edge, I thought she was very good, the accent slipped to English on a few occasions, but that can be forgiven, I hope it's a springboard for her I like her.

6/10 It was good, it should have been so much more.

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)

Rating: 3.4/5 stars

"Paper Towns" isn't as deep or moving as it wants to be, yet it's still earnest, well-acted, and thoughtful enough to earn a place in the hearts of teen filmgoers of all ages while providing a breezy, light-hearted nostalgic trip for adult viewers. Unlike "The Fault in Our Stars" (the first, big-screen John Green adaptation), the overall mood here is safe rather than edgy, but what it does do very effectively is capture a particular quality of adolescent yearning.

"Paper Towns" follows the familiar story of the wannabe high- schooler who meets a dreamy girl and everything falls into place. Trying to subvert this stereotypical storyline, the film neatly weaves themes of loneliness, fear, depression, and anxiety into the plot. The film takes a lot of the original spirit of the novel while subverting the story, taking out all the meandering teenage angst and replacing it with a fun, understated film.

It's eventually a bittersweet teen film with much to offer even those of us who have, in theory, grown up, although it never quite reaches its potential of a remarkable coming-of-age drama.

Maybe I'm getting old. These over-serious, platitude-filled teen dramas used to only mildly annoy me. Now, with Paper Towns, I feel myself getting irrationally angry at its desperate plea to be this generation's The Breakfast Club. From where is that resentment coming? Maybe it's that I'm a 30-year-old married-father who's not meant to like this movie. Maybe it's that I'm coming off the high of the teen drama Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Whatever it is, Paper Towns irritated much more than it charmed. The premise has potential: nerd spends one magically frivolous night with the enigmatic girl of his dreams, Margot, before she inexplicably disappears. Instead of being unique, stylish, or progressive, it becomes the lament of the rich-white-teen and the manic pixie dream girl. Our "hero" is drawn to her magnetic mystery, but that appeal never reaches the audience. At times, she represents an idea more than a character, but mostly she's an unbearably selfish, manipulative shrew, using her womanly wiles to get whatever she needs. When she's off-screen, the interplay between the friends is watchable, but her bothersome presence is never far away. Worst yet, in the end PT never takes a stance on Margot, like the movie is trying to have its cake and eat it too. Stylistically, the movie is forcefully quirky, annoyingly cutesy, and boasts a soundtrack that's like someone pushed the "hipster" button on a Casio Keyboard. We can only blame director Schreier, whose previous film was the under-seen Robot and Frank. Just stay home and watch that, a story about a machine with more humanity than anyone in PT.

Quentin Jacobsen is an Orlando high school senior with a small comfort zone. He's a band geek with his best friends Ben and Radar. Margo has been living across the street for 11 years. They were friends when she first arrived. They found a dead body but he refused to follow her adventures and they drifted apart. Now suddenly, she climbs into his window. She pulls him into a night of revenge against her cheating boyfriend and her backstabbing friends. She's gone the next day but she has left clues for Quentin to find her paper town. Quentin, Ben, Radar, Radar's girlfriend Angela, and Margo's friend Lacey go on a road trip.

Cara Delevingne shows competent acting and a good intriguing presence which is necessary for the role. The movie starts with her taking our lead on a nice adventure. It has its moments. I like those one-night adventures in movies. Then there is the mystery which is less compelling because I'm mostly waiting for the inevitable road trip. I also like a good road trip and this one has its moments, too. The movie ends with a nice 'lesson'. Everything is fair but nothing is outstanding. The three guys are nice but lacks great charisma. They are more and less regular teens which has its appeal. I like their friendship. As a book, I'm sure this has many fans. As a movie, it needs more adventures and more cinematic excitement. It could have tightened the middle and added more to the road trip when the group is together. This is fine but it could have been much better.

Coming on the heels of its commercially-successful predecessor, 'The Fault in Our Stars', PAPER TOWNS is no heavy tearjerker, but it echoes more affectionate and piercing sentiments, with its lighter, minimalist take of its recognizable subjects.

The film follows Quentin (Nat Wolff) , or "Q" as he is more popularly called, a highschool boy who has been nursing an unrequited love for the girl living next door, Margo (Cara Delevigne) since childhood. Even after when they turn 12, when Margo suddenly becomes distant, "Q" never loses the affection, and it only becomes even stronger when one day she climbs again to his window, the way she did when they were still kids. The next events follow an eager "Q" savoring the moment as he escorts Margo in her series of "small revenge" against those she thinks have betrayed her, including her ex-boyfriend. But the levitating moment would only last overnight, because the next day, the ever mystifying Margo, disappears.

Mining on the same overly familiar material that dwells on both coming-of-age and teenage romance territories, PAPER TOWNS pulls off two easily-recognizable efforts: maintaining 'The Fault's charm, while toning down its tragic notions. The latter of which, yields a more tangible and heartwarming result, capable of conjuring a lasting tug at the heartstrings. The credit for this goes to its equally-charming yet capable actors, both of whom teeming with fresh and enigmatic likability. It will also sound unforgivable to never pay regard to the film's brilliant screenwriters who manage to cleverly highlight this extremely familiar highschool tale's stronger and more relatable sentiments, genuinely and sincerely enough, to bend fragile emotions with crippling capacity.

"Q"'s road trip in finding Margo represents a bigger journey with far wider scope and meaning, and it comes across as a process of personal exploration that unknowingly liberates one self, toward finding the deeper sense of their existence. Hardly that the questions thrown get resolved, but the charming and sincere take of its proceedings, will ultimately make the narrative arrive to a satisfying conclusion. This doesn't mean it's able to satisfy its own queries, but the resolution delivered are nonetheless, reliable and honest.

PAPER TOWNS will come across as a witty, yet touching case of a 'lost and found'. Much of it is spent in searching for the 'lost', a liberating process that frees its seekers from every question that unfolds in the wake of a previous other, but the 'found', though never really answers any of the previous questions, will deliver a surprisingly satisfying, and never less of a rewarding, answer.