Review of Paper Towns (2015) by Spangle — 22 Jan 2016

Paper Towns is kind of a funny little flick. It screams teenaged philosopher and is a film that thinks it knows more than it really does. Yet, it does offer some interesting insights on relationships (both romantic and friends) and has a compelling plot that is fun to follow along with.

However, it is aggressively average all the same. The film is decently cast and has the occasional moment of brilliance from a filmmaking standpoint, but is like an agglomeration of every other teenage film ever.

Paper Towns tries to get its viewer to leaves their comfort zone. To avoid the ordinary and become extraordinary. Tragically, the film ignores its own advice as it shamelessly borrows from prior coming of age dramedies aimed at teenagers.

Even more, the story is largely quite ludicrous and far-fetched (how did these kids have access to this much cash), which also serves to hold the film back. Now, it is quite charming and a good time even it is quite typical.

For a film that is largely derivative of past works, it needs to offer something new or just have enough pizzazz and power to overcome its generic nature, but Paper Towns does not do this. For fans of the genre, Paper Towns should satisfy.

For everyone else, Paper Towns will likely just be a mildly fun way to spend almost two hours.