Review of Paper Heart (2009) by Manny C — 09 Dec 2009

Charlene Yi (you may remember the small part she had in Knocked Up) has done something very ingenius. She plays herself, I think. She's making a documentary about the one thing she doesn't believe in: love, and sets out to talk with people who do. She meets Michael Cera, also sort of playing himself, and possibly maybe is Yi's real life boyfriend. I think. And there are visual elements galore, including puppets. And actor Jake Johnson plays the film's actual director Jake Johnson.

It's not hard to see why Paper Heart won Yi a screenwriting award at this year's Sundance. Loving and admiring her film is no problem at all, but describing it is. Still, Yi, who is of Filipino, Spanish, Korean, Irish, German, French and Native American descent is a lively and enchanting presence who's worth following anywhere.