tek's rating:

Paper Towns (PG-13)
20th Century Studios; IMDb; John Green; Rotten Tomatoes; TV Tropes; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; iTunes; Movies Anywhere; Vudu; YouTube

Caution: spoilers.

This is based on a book of the same name by John Green, which I haven't read. The movie got mixed reviews, but was financially successful. Personally, I can't really understand why anyone would dislike it.

The story is narrated by one of the main characters, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen (Nat Wolff). He tells us about how he fell in love at first sight when a girl named Margo Roth Spiegelman (Cara Delevingne) moved into the house across the street from him, when they were kids. We see a little bit of them in that time (when they were of course played by younger actors), but most of the movie is set in the present, when I think they're both like 18 years old. The two of them had been friends for awhile, when they were younger, but in the years since then, they've drifted apart. In the present, Q's best friends are guys named Ben and "Radar," while Margo's best friends are girls named Lacey (Halston Sage) and Becca. One night, Margo shows up at Q's bedroom window, just like she used to when they were kids, and asks him to come with her on a revenge adventure. She needs him to drive her around in his mother's minivan, but also she wants to have one last adventure with him before they (and all their friends) go their separate ways, since they'll all be graduating high school soon. Though Q's friends spend most of the movie thinking more about the upcoming prom than about graduation. Q himself doesn't have any interest in prom, but Radar will be going with his girlfriend, Angela; and Ben is hopeful that he'll find some girl to go with him.

Anyway, Margo wants to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend, Jase, whom she recently broke up with when she learned he was cheating on her with Becca. She also wants revenge on Becca, as well as Lacey, whom she believes knew what Jase and Becca were up to, and didn't tell her about it. And in return for Q's help, she wants to help him get revenge on some other guy, who did something mean to Q years ago, although Q didn't even know about it until Margo tells him, now. So... Q and Margo have a fun and exciting night, and Q thinks maybe after this their friendship will be renewed, and he might have a chance to finally profess his love for her. However, the next day, Margo doesn't show up at school, and remains missing for the next few days. Q decides to look for clues she's left to her whereabouts, and enlists Ben and Radar to help. Meanwhile, Lacey asks Q to let her know if he hears from Margo, because she actually didn't know about Becca and Jase, and is distraught to have lost her best friend. Eventually, Q thinks he figures out where Margo has gone: to a "paper town," i.e. a town that appears on maps, but doesn't really exist, one called Agloe, New York, which is like 1200 miles away or something. He decides to go on a road trip to find her, along with Radar and Ben. They're joined by Lacey and Angela, as well, though everyone except Q hopes they'll be able to return home in time for prom.

That's all I really want to reveal of the plot, but I'll say that I thought it was mostly a pretty decent story. I was worried for part of the movie that Margo might be perceived as sort of a "manic pixie dream girl," though I found her at least somewhat edgier than most such characters. But most importantly, I mean what I like best about the movie, is how that whole trope ends up being totally subverted at the end of the movie... and how Q just accepts that he's been wrong about certain things, all these years. He even learns to appreciate some things about his life and friendships that he hadn't fully appreciated before. I just think it's a remarkably healthy reaction to how things turn out between him and Margo (and something a lot of people in real life, especially guys, should learn from). In fact, I only have one major problem with the film, and that's a certain element of body shaming of one minor character, which is wrong no matter how much of a jerk he might be. Other than that... it was basically a fun movie with a good lesson.


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