Cara Delevingne and Nat Wolff
The adaptation of the John Green young adult novel Paper Towns gets an across-the-board treatment in a coming-of-age story rife with teenage angst, but not so much that it alienates an adult audience. We've all been there, done that; some of us are still there.
There's a bit of influence instilled obviously in a Ferris Bueller's Day Off meets John Hughes' series morphed with the Mean Girls' heavies in the story, but it's more mature than that. Remember how the kids in Dawson's Creek had depth wise beyond their years? That's the sensibility of Q, the boy next door who falls in love with the girl across the street.
The movie opens when the two kids are grade schoolers. She climbs into his window after witnessing something really scary, but it doesn't even fluster her. In fact, it ignites something in her.
All that happens from the beginning up to the very end is from the point of view of Quentin Jacobson, Q for short. His love interest is Margo Roth Spiegelman. In the beginning there are no expectations that quickly rear their ugly heads in high school: The who is cool and who isn't hasn't yet taken hold. Flash forward to the next phase and it's all there: geeks vs. jocks; cool girls flipping their hair and turning a blind eye to the boys they didn't judge when they were both wearing Pampers.
Q (Nat Wolff) spends his grade school and teenage years under Margo’s (the model Cara Delevingne who radiates, voice and style is reminiscent of a young Kathleen Turner) mysterious spell, as does the rest of the Orlando high school. Margo is one of those girls that disappears with regularity, while her school chums imagine she's off leading the Iditarod or helping the less fortunate in a Mother Teresa camp.
Most likely not. The self involved girl has taken off to find herself, to get attention, to be the coolest girl in school, which she is. In this slice of life, she convinces Q to join her on a romp of hi jinx to take revenge on her cheating boyfriend. It's one night and then she kisses Q and she's off again. It becomes one of Q's best night of his life. Q is convinced that she's left him clues, so he sets out on a journey. He's going to find her and, as you can imagine, the author is going to have him find himself in the process.
The title of Paper Towns is slick, too, as it refers to a trick that cartographers use to keep their maps from being copied by competitors. But for Margo, it's places like her hometown of Orlando (the movie was shot in Charlotte, N.C., which doubles as Orlando), which are manmade creations of cities, and filled with disillusionment and non originality.
Nat Wolff and Cara Delevingne
The film is directed by Jake Schreier from a script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who also adapted Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. Paper Towns keeps the same starry quality.
Schreier's direction is at its best when he's working the cast, getting the most from his young actors, especially Q's teen buddies, brainiac Radar (Justice Smith) and goofy Ben (Austin Abrams). The perfectly paired indie soundtrack underscores the angst and dissatisfaction of youth.
Despite some places of pure fantasy (the kids take an East Coast road trip in Mom's car without telling her and she's not even a bit upset. And why aren't the parents just a tad concerned when the teens are piled into a mini van to places unknown?), it's easy to get caught up in the swirl of the final moments of senior year.
The actors, even some of the bit players, smolder with charisma, especially Delevingne. Schreier's camera catches her every nuance and Delevingne embraces Margo with a devil-may-care charisma. No wonder Q is smitten.
Wolff, who played the blind best friend in The Fault in our Stars, is already being called the next teen heartthrob. His Quentin is a romantic brooder and while he doesn't demand your sympathy, he certainly earns it. The mercurial Margo tugs at his heartstrings. And your heart goes out to him. He's a teenage charmer and even if Margo doesn't see it, we do, thanks to Wolff.
Paper Towns, the book, may have been for the Y-A set, but the movie is a film for everyone.
