KOJO ESSAH
Paper Towns is a romantic-drama directed by Jake Schreier. The film is based on the novel of the same name by John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars. It follows the story of Quentin Jacobsen, who, together with his friends, goes on a journey to find his love Margo Roth Spiegelman, who disappeared after her and Quentin exact revenge on Margo’s friends for wronging her. Throughout this journey, Quentin bonds with his friends as this is the last time they would do anything together before heading to different universities. Although the movie delivers meaningful messages and has relatable situations, it is not as thought-provoking as it believes itself to be.
The majority of the film takes place in a high school setting, utilizing certain high school tropes that are familiar to movie-goers. This setting makes the film relatable to some extent, but it does not do anything new to distance itself from other high school-related movies. The script incorporates elements of comedy into the movie, making these comedic scenes some of the most memorable in the film. The main point of the movie is the mystery surrounding Margo’s disappearance, but this aspect is not handled well and ends up being very underwhelming. The movie’s target audience is teenagers and young adults, and as a result of this, several events and dialogue in the film are fairly easy to predict.
The two main characters in this film, Quentin and Margo, are played by Nat Wolff and Cara Delevingne respectively. Wolff plays his role convincingly, but Delevingne can at times be indifferent in her acting. Quentin’s two best friends, Radar and Ben, are played by Justice Smith and Austin Abrams respectively. Their performances, notably Abrams’ performance, are incredibly believable and are a welcome aspect of the film.
The film’s soundtrack contains material from bands such as Haim, Vampire Weekend, The War on Drugs and many others. This collection of songs brings the film’s scenes to life.
While Paper Towns is not the most thought-provoking movie out there, it tries hard to be captivating and emotionally provocative. It suffers from inconsistencies in terms of script and is predictable at times, but the movie does have its fair share of meaningful scenes, which make the audience reflect about how they are living their lives.
Rating: 3/5
Image: imbd.com
