Paper Towns

Paper Towns – Three friends are brought together when an attention seeking teen girl runs away from home for a fifth time, leaving ambiguous clues as to where she may have gone. Despite being ignored by her for many years, Quentin is enraptured by her so when she uses him to help exact revenge on her cheating ex, her next-day disappearance causes him to feel responsible and he hopes that if he finds her, she may see him in a more romantic light. With the help of his loyal and supportive friends, Quentin’s perceptions of those around him and his surroundings begin to change for the better.

Paper Towns (2015) – Jake Schreier

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51281025

Rating: 12

Running Length: 109 mins

Starring: Nat Wolff, Austin Abrams, Justice Smith

Genre: Drama, Romance, Teen

REVIEW: PAPER TOWNS

John Green has made a name for himself for penning teen romance novels, ‘The Fault in our Stars’ was a pulling-at-the-heartstrings ‘sicklit’ romance and ‘Paper Towns’ follows Quentin (Nat Wolff) who watches former friend, Margo (Cara Delevingne), like a loyal puppy, despite her not giving him the time of day for years. When she graces him with her presence, he jumps into her adventure with both feet, finding himself in the uncomfortable position of helping her to exact revenge on her boyfriend and friends. When she disappears, he is determined to be her white knight saviour and sets about following her clues, roping in friends and putting them into potentially dangerous situations.

Living in a world with minimal parental presence (and therefore being able to do as they please), the teens in ‘Paper Towns’ of course are essentially adults who either make perfect decisions or, when they do mess it up, the consequences are never overly dire. Despite Quentin’s willingness to endanger his friends, he is likeable and his friendship with Radar and Ben is a lot of fun to watch, especially as it grows and develops as the movie goes on. Supporting characters Lacey and Angela also fit nicely within the boy’s group so when they end up on a road trip to find the elusive Margo it is genuinely enjoyable. Anyone over the age of 15 is going to find Margo deeply irritating and one can’t help feeling that if her part of the story (which is the entire core of the other character’s motivations) was completely removed, the film would be all the better for it.

‘Paper Towns’ isn’t high art and has no interest in impressing anyone except for romance-obsessed teens, however if you do find yourself having to watching it, take comfort in the fact that around halfway through, the focus shifts to the friendship group which provides a few good laughs and enjoyable camaraderie.

CONTENT: IS ‘PAPER TOWNS’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

A group of children discover the body of a man leaning against a tree. The body is shot from below and behind so nothing graphic is seen, however a voiceover states ‘I thought you closed your eyes when you died’.

Not long after Margo moves into a nearby house, she approaches Quentin in his bedroom at night, trying to persuade him to sneak out. He declines. She is then shown to sneak out at night on a regular basis, Quentin sees her and gives her a knowing nod, implying that this happens regularly.

There are a few brief shots of Margo’s exploits, one showing her as a young child of around 13 years old, the voiceover saying that ‘she travelled with the circus for 3 weeks’. Then, as an older teen, she is shown to be trying to get backstage after a music gig. She tells the security guard who is trying to turn her away ‘If you ask the bassist, he’s either gonna say I’m his girlfriend or he wants to be. Either way, I’m going back in there’. The bassist, who looks quite a bit older than her, looks over at the security guard and nods his agreement. This casual attitude from a teen girl towards being a groupie to a rock band may not be a good message, particularly to young girls who may not know what being a groupie often entails.

Margo sneaks into Quentin’s bedroom at night and tells him that she needs to borrow his car and that she wants him to drive it. He agrees and the pair go on a revenge spree due to her boyfriend cheating on her. They go to the house of a girl she knows and calls the house, when the girl’s dad answers the phone Margo tells him ‘I thought you’d like to know your daughter is having sex in your basement right now’. After a few seconds, Margo’s boyfriend climbs out of the basement window, completely naked and runs away. Quentin takes a photo of him like this to use against him later.

A teen boy is sexually attracted to his friend’s mother, saying ‘I would hit that so hard!’ Later, the friend says ‘Last time I was scared, I was in my mom’s bed’ to which the other boy says ‘If I were you I’d get scared every night!’. This character repeatedly makes sexual comments and tells his friends how he has had sex before but it was ‘one hit and quit’ implying a casual one night stand. Despite his bravado, it is likely he is making this all up to impress his friends.

When looking for the clues that Margo has left, Quentin, Ben and Radar go to her house. The door is answered by her younger sister who lets the three boys, who are strangers to her, into the house after they give her money and she follows them to Margo’s bedroom, it is made clear that her parents aren’t home.

Quentin discovers an address from one of Margo’s clues which, according to Radar is ‘not a nice neighbourhood’. The 3 boys skip school in order to go to the address which turns out to be an old derelict souvenir shop. They enter and find a large dark hole in the wall with a message they assume is from Margo saying ‘thru the hole’. They promptly go through but after a short time there, they hear a suspicious noise and run away.

Quentin goes to the souvenir shop alone and stays there overnight. He wakes up suddenly when he hears a noise like someone moving inside the building. After around 30 suspenseful seconds, a young woman climbs through the hole in the wall, wearing a revealing red dress. She approaches Quentin and kisses him but this does not go any further.

Quentin goes to a party where many of the people there drink excessively. He opens the door to a bedroom and sees a couple having sex on the bed.

A teen girl talks about rumours that were spread about her saying ‘(they) told everyone I have chlamydia, which I don’t – anymore’.

Two characters who are in an established relationship lie together on a blanket and kiss passionately. The camera cuts away but the next morning the boy blurts out to a friend ‘(she) and I had sex!’

Finding himself stranded hundreds of miles from home, a character hitchhikes all the way back.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘PAPER TOWNS’ FOR KIDS?

‘Paper Towns’ isn’t a great movie but thankfully it does have a few redeeming features. Due to almost constant sexual references throughout and plenty of bad language, we feel this movie is unsuitable for children under 12 years old.

• Violence: 0/5
• Emotional Distress: 0/5
• Fear Factor: 2/5 (a couple of suspenseful moments, particularly when characters are in the creepy souvenir shop)
• Sexual Content: 4/5 (mostly dialogue based, however the movie has a very casual attitude towards teen sex, couples are expected to be in a sexual relationship and one couple who aren’t end up having sex (a few days before they intended to). A male character is photographed naked without his consent with the sole purpose of humiliating and blackmailing him. This character has wronged another so this the film portrays this as entirely justified and that he deserves it)
• Bad Language: 4/5 (frequent cursing throughout. One strong word is used)
• Dialogue: 3/5 (mostly sexual in nature)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of teenage angst, romance, friendship, idolising another person, running away from home, school years and realising what’s important in life.

Words by Laura Record

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