The teen movie is having a comeback. And I'm not talking about something distantly related to "Clueless" or "Mean Girls": I'm talking about the teen movie that actually says something, like how John Hughes made our hearts ache and how "Flirting" (which I consider to be the finest teen movie ever made) reminded us that youth is an at-once arduous and preciously sacred time. Nothing's better than when movie executives get hit over the head and realize that the years of a teenager are not Bella and Edward moneymakers, making the correct decision to instead let someone like John Green have his say instead of Betty Thomas.
Because one could say John Green is the new John Hughes, an author who seems most content when promoting weepers defined by immensely lovable, quirky characters put into situations dire in their conception but life-changing by their end. Granted, I'm no expert: my only contact with the author comes from last year's excellent adaptation of "The Fault In Our Stars" and my recent reading of "Paper Towns"; but recurring in his works is a considerable amount of heart, a rarity in a day and age of Instagram fed vapidness. "Paper Towns" is timely, heartrending. Not cancer-stricken or tragic like "The Fault in Our Stars", it captures the last few moments of high school and the mishaps that can emanate from first love in an affecting, authentic way. That's Green for you.
This time around, the young man living the last few moments of high school and suffering from the mishaps that can emanate from first love is Quentin "Q" Jacobsen (Nat Wolff), an eighteen-year-old who has his entire life planned out. He's the kind of guy headed to a prestigious college in the fall, the kind of guy who gets excited by the idea of getting married and having kids. He's a square, but he's a square by choice — he's contented while the other kids seem to perpetually undergo serious bouts of angst.
There's only one person in his high school that makes spontaneity seem exciting, that person being Margo (Cara Delevingne), his neighbor and longtime crush. She's one of the popular kids, getting her kicks palling around with the jocks and the pretty girls; but she's hardly innocuous, a nonconformist whose outwardly exuberant persona makes her a hit because everyone has an image of the person she really is on repeat. Quentin idolizes her.
So imagine his surprise when Margo, who he's hardly talked to since they kidded around in their childhood days, shows up at his window one night, asking for a great favor. She has designed a revenge plot meant to harm the people who have scorned her throughout high school (most notably her ex-boyfriend and ex-BFFs), and she fathoms that Quentin, being the square he is, would benefit from a night out as a getaway driver. He reluctantly agrees, and the twosome, looking like a pair of twee rebels, embark on a journey around the city that provides Quentin with the greatest night of his life and yet another reason to love Margo Roth Spiegelman with all his heart. But the next day, she disappears as if she never existed.
The rest of "Paper Towns" details Quentin's quest to find Margo and profess his love for her, deepening his friendships with longtime cronies Ben (Austin Abrams) and Radar (Justice Smith) while also learning a little bit about himself. The entire concept sounds very after school special, but Green is much too heartfelt and witty of a writer to make the story do anything besides tug at our heartstrings and make us unexpectedly guffaw like it's no big deal. The transition from book to film is a smooth one, conquering the difficulties of finding the perfect cast and ensuring that the best moments in the novel are characterized on the screen as we would want them to. Granted, some of my favorite things in the book are omitted, like Quentin and Margo's SeaWorld detour and Radar's love for Wikipedia parody Omnictionary, but I can live with it, especially considering the ending the film provides is much more satisfying than the novel's abrupt conclusion. So it's good that the moving yearning of "Paper Towns" stays one and the same on camera and on paper, bearing the same sort of urgent poignancy that hits us in spots we'd be too vulnerable to admit.
And the performances are well-tuned: Wolff excels as an unconventional leading man, and Delevingne, the fashion world's new Kate Moss, gives a surprisingly earnest characterization. Supporting Abrams and Smith appeal, with Halston Sage and Jaz Sinclair inviting as their love interests. "Paper Towns" is exactly what fans of the novel want it to be. Just don't expect another "The Fault In Our Stars". It would be too much, and "Paper Towns" is too down to Earth to cause immediate dehydration of the eyes.
Because one could say John Green is the new John Hughes, an author who seems most content when promoting weepers defined by immensely lovable, quirky characters put into situations dire in their conception but life-changing by their end. Granted, I'm no expert: my only contact with the author comes from last year's excellent adaptation of "The Fault In Our Stars" and my recent reading of "Paper Towns"; but recurring in his works is a considerable amount of heart, a rarity in a day and age of Instagram fed vapidness. "Paper Towns" is timely, heartrending. Not cancer-stricken or tragic like "The Fault in Our Stars", it captures the last few moments of high school and the mishaps that can emanate from first love in an affecting, authentic way. That's Green for you.
This time around, the young man living the last few moments of high school and suffering from the mishaps that can emanate from first love is Quentin "Q" Jacobsen (Nat Wolff), an eighteen-year-old who has his entire life planned out. He's the kind of guy headed to a prestigious college in the fall, the kind of guy who gets excited by the idea of getting married and having kids. He's a square, but he's a square by choice — he's contented while the other kids seem to perpetually undergo serious bouts of angst.
There's only one person in his high school that makes spontaneity seem exciting, that person being Margo (Cara Delevingne), his neighbor and longtime crush. She's one of the popular kids, getting her kicks palling around with the jocks and the pretty girls; but she's hardly innocuous, a nonconformist whose outwardly exuberant persona makes her a hit because everyone has an image of the person she really is on repeat. Quentin idolizes her.
So imagine his surprise when Margo, who he's hardly talked to since they kidded around in their childhood days, shows up at his window one night, asking for a great favor. She has designed a revenge plot meant to harm the people who have scorned her throughout high school (most notably her ex-boyfriend and ex-BFFs), and she fathoms that Quentin, being the square he is, would benefit from a night out as a getaway driver. He reluctantly agrees, and the twosome, looking like a pair of twee rebels, embark on a journey around the city that provides Quentin with the greatest night of his life and yet another reason to love Margo Roth Spiegelman with all his heart. But the next day, she disappears as if she never existed.
The rest of "Paper Towns" details Quentin's quest to find Margo and profess his love for her, deepening his friendships with longtime cronies Ben (Austin Abrams) and Radar (Justice Smith) while also learning a little bit about himself. The entire concept sounds very after school special, but Green is much too heartfelt and witty of a writer to make the story do anything besides tug at our heartstrings and make us unexpectedly guffaw like it's no big deal. The transition from book to film is a smooth one, conquering the difficulties of finding the perfect cast and ensuring that the best moments in the novel are characterized on the screen as we would want them to. Granted, some of my favorite things in the book are omitted, like Quentin and Margo's SeaWorld detour and Radar's love for Wikipedia parody Omnictionary, but I can live with it, especially considering the ending the film provides is much more satisfying than the novel's abrupt conclusion. So it's good that the moving yearning of "Paper Towns" stays one and the same on camera and on paper, bearing the same sort of urgent poignancy that hits us in spots we'd be too vulnerable to admit.
And the performances are well-tuned: Wolff excels as an unconventional leading man, and Delevingne, the fashion world's new Kate Moss, gives a surprisingly earnest characterization. Supporting Abrams and Smith appeal, with Halston Sage and Jaz Sinclair inviting as their love interests. "Paper Towns" is exactly what fans of the novel want it to be. Just don't expect another "The Fault In Our Stars". It would be too much, and "Paper Towns" is too down to Earth to cause immediate dehydration of the eyes.