What I Didn’t Like About the Paper Towns Movie
Paper Towns is my favorite John Green book. I often list it as my favorite book. For the purposes of this post, I am going to ignore my increasing problems with John Green (you can read more about why Green is problematic here and here and other places, I’m sure.) Please note that my views of book vs. movie may be flawed due to time, love of book, decreasing interest in John Green.
My problems:
In a creative writing class I took, we often discussed what happens in a story vs. what the story is about. Paper Towns, the movie, basically includes everything that happens in the book. However, it doesn’t really touch on anything the book is about (or what I felt the book was about). The book dealt with the intricacies of identity in a way I thought was important and interesting. We often build up versions of people in our minds, especially in a celebrity obsessed culture like ours. Sometimes those people are nothing like our constructs. Sometimes they, that person/celebrity struggle to meet the expectations of their “celebrity,” ignoring their actual identities. Margo is this larger-than-life personality to her friends, her school, and Q. In the book, Margo the myth is pitted against Margo the person. This analysis of identity is spread to all the major characters in the book who are allowed to express and define their own identities as they search for and discover more about Margo.
Paper Towns works as a mystery. Like ... an award winning mystery. It actually builds suspense. Real tension exists as Q and Co. try to find Margo. Did she run away? Is she dead? Did she kill herself? The movie ignores this aspect. Sure, the group follows random clues. But there is no suspense. There isn’t even any fun as they try to solve the clues. They just seem to be super geniuses that find clues and quickly put them together. Le Sigh.
It is cloyingly nostalgic for 80s movies. With its soundtrack of bands who draw inspiration from the decade and it being a teen movie, one can’t help but notice Paper Towns trying hard to be a John Hughes movie. I even noticed it had a bit of a Goonies feel. My biggest problem with this ... I hate John Hughes (and, to a lesser extent, The Goonies). Hughes is often racist, sexist ... etc. There is this UNEXPLAINABLE love/reverence for his movies that I just cannot condone. This movie, from a storytelling standpoint, just seemed to be stuck in the past. Not that every movie has to reinvent the wheel, but if you are paying tribute to a decade I find particularly abhorrent ... then I am probably not going to enjoy your movie.
What I did like (because why always be negative):
Radar. More particularly, Justice Smith. This guy should be the new Michael Cera.
The Gas Station scene. On their road trip, the group must make a quick stop at a gas station to stay on course. The editing, writing, acting, directing on this scene was just top notch. This is the kind of scene a book can’t do justice.
Establishing shots of Orlando. The emptiness/gaudiness. I don’t know what. I was just like, “Whoa, that’s a beautiful shot.”
Also, forget those people who had a problem with Cara Delevingne’s interview on Good Morning Sacramento. Celebrities are allowed to be human, they are allowed to have human responses, and when asked stupid annoying questions, don’t be surprised if humans respond humanly.