By: Caden H. Hollander
Paper Towns is directed by Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank) and stars Nat Wolff, Cara Delevigne and Austin Abrams. The movie is based on the popular book by John Green (Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska) and is about a high school senior Quentin (Wolff) goes on an epic all-night adventure with his childhood love, Margo (Delevigne). The day after, Margo goes missing, so Quentin and his friends attempt to find Margo. So, I went into the theater knowing that reviews were not that great, but I was still hoping that it would reach the level of The Fault in Our Stars, which was one of my favorite films of last year. I was also interested to see how Cara Delevigne would do, considering that she will be appearing in Suicide Squad in 2016, which is one of my most anticipated films of next year. So, how was it?
Paper Towns is directed by Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank) and stars Nat Wolff, Cara Delevigne and Austin Abrams. The movie is based on the popular book by John Green (Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska) and is about a high school senior Quentin (Wolff) goes on an epic all-night adventure with his childhood love, Margo (Delevigne). The day after, Margo goes missing, so Quentin and his friends attempt to find Margo. So, I went into the theater knowing that reviews were not that great, but I was still hoping that it would reach the level of The Fault in Our Stars, which was one of my favorite films of last year. I was also interested to see how Cara Delevigne would do, considering that she will be appearing in Suicide Squad in 2016, which is one of my most anticipated films of next year. So, how was it?
To start, Paper Towns is no The Fault in Our Stars. However, it is still a fun movie and a good adaptation of the book. The movie was funny, with great dialog, and made me laugh a ton, which really surprised me. The movie also fixed the main problem I had with the book, which was a slow patch in the middle. For me, the film was not slow at any point, and sped along with great comedy and dialog. However, there were also a few things that were left out of the movie as well, which disappointed me, as a huge fan of the book.
As for the acting, Nat Wolff did a decent job in the lead. He seems to be more equipped to play quirky supporting roles rather than leads (Fault in Our Stars), but he was decent. My personal standout performance was from Halston Sage, who played Lacey. She didn't have a large role in the book, but she was very present throughout the movie, and her character and performance had a lot to say about how hot chicks are seen today, and how people are judged by appearances, when maybe they shouldn't be. My least favorite performance by far was from Cara Delevigne as Margo, which was really disappointing, because her character had the most potential in the film. However, she seemed mis-cast, as the fast-talking, fun, quick-witted character from the books did not appear to be present in the film. The whole idea of her character was to be fun, someone you'd want to hang out with, like Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars. And while Ansel Elgort played the spontaneous lovable guy really well, Delevigne did not. I wanted the movie to pick up when she was on screen, but unfortunately it slowed down.
Overall, I thought that Paper Towns was a fun adaptation of a brilliant book. There were changes from the novel that I appreciated, while there were some disappointments in the film as well, regarding the casting and scenes from the book not included. However, Paper Towns was a lot funnier than I believed that it would be. In the end, Paper Towns deserves a B. This is a movie I would recommend as a rental, while maybe not something you need to see in theaters. So, what did you think of Paper Towns? Comment below, and thanks for reading this article!