Review of Paper Towns (2015) by Brett H — 10 Jun 2016

Paper Towns is the second feature-length adaptation of a John Green novel about young teen angst, but compared to The Fault In Our Stars, which I thought was decent, this film didn't register with me at all! The story centers on a young teen named, Quentin who's in-love-at-a-distance with his neighbour, Margo and after one fateful night where she finally pays attention to him and they get into mischief, she promptly disappears and he and his friends begin a search, following clues she left behind.

The mystery elements of this film are actually quite cool and are the only real hook here as I found the characters rang false and the movie was trying SO HARD to be off-beat and quirky. Nat Wolff who plays Quentin, to me, is not a strong lead and Cara Delevingne receives top-billing for playing Margo when she really only has about fifteen minutes of screen-time, the rest of the cast are merely place-holders for the "motley crew of stereotypical friends".

There really is no connection between the characters as Quentin and Margo have barely said three words to each other since they were very young, and thus I never bought Quentin's plight and not to mention the fact that Margo's characterization is pretty piss-poor.

One minute she can be completely sweet and endearing and the next she's this cold, distant, "rebel" who hates the system and wants to live life as a nobody essentially and it's jarring trying to keep up with her head-space.

This is an unremarkable teen film that plays out more like a fantasy than a true coming-of-age film and it failed to charm me with its inconsistent storytelling and pretentious characterizations.