PAPER TOWNS (2015) Review
“What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.”
– John Green, Paper Towns
Paper Towns is more than just a love story or a teen romance, it’s hard to process how the film works especially if you’re expecting a love story. The film can be looked at in two different point of views: an exploration of oneself or going against the odds for something you thought exist (connection, love). But how it explains all sides is that life is a mystery and will always be. What matters most is who and what you have right now.
Director Jake Schreier balanced well the drama, comedy and romance in the film that it didn’t matter at all how it is categorized. But it sure is a self-exploration film. A one that doesn’t want to be labeled, it just wants to tell a story. Nat Wolff is the main star here, he perfectly portrays a teen that feels like he thought he had planned out his future but misses what the teen years should be like. Cara Delevinge effortlessly acts mysterious as Margo Roth Spiegelman but Austin Abrams, Justice Smith and Halston Sage gives extra flavor to this wonderful journey of friendship and teen romance.
Though anticlimactic and not as romantic as you may expect, Paper Towns is a genuinely satisfying tale of self exploration and friendship. You get to realize and contemplate a lot of things during your teenage years and the film gets how energetic, reckless, hopeful and fun it all is or was.
Paper Towns opens in Philippine cinemas July 22 from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros. Rated PG by the MTRCB.
Our rating: 4 out of 5 stars
I LOVED the book, it’s how I got hooked on John Green.