There are movies that you know the right kind of person would find hilarious, that you can see would make a whole bunch of people laugh, even if it's not the kind of thing you find interesting or particularly funny. Paper Heart is one of those movies. Charlyne Yi - I remembered her most from Knocked Up - drives this mockumentary about a real topic, whether Yi can understand love. She travels with a film crew and interviews people in Vegas and then around the country about love, what it means to them, how to find it, how to keep it, etc. She also interviews her friends about whether or not she's capable of love. This was the first place the movie lost me - all her friends are pretty famous and mostly from the cast of Knocked Up. That seemed odd. Then she meets Michael Cera (comedic genius/one-note monkey?) and they hit it off and start dating. This also happened in real life, so it's hard to figure out what they're mocking and what is real. The best part of the movie is the new ending they put together using a moving diorama like we made in middle school. It's hilarious and worth making it through the film. The rest of it is ho-hum and not really my sense of humor, but I can appreciate that it's potentially really funny (I also didn't like Best in Show, which I'm told is very funny). 2.5 lambs/stars
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Paper Heart: Not my kind of funny
There are movies that you know the right kind of person would find hilarious, that you can see would make a whole bunch of people laugh, even if it's not the kind of thing you find interesting or particularly funny. Paper Heart is one of those movies. Charlyne Yi - I remembered her most from Knocked Up - drives this mockumentary about a real topic, whether Yi can understand love. She travels with a film crew and interviews people in Vegas and then around the country about love, what it means to them, how to find it, how to keep it, etc. She also interviews her friends about whether or not she's capable of love. This was the first place the movie lost me - all her friends are pretty famous and mostly from the cast of Knocked Up. That seemed odd. Then she meets Michael Cera (comedic genius/one-note monkey?) and they hit it off and start dating. This also happened in real life, so it's hard to figure out what they're mocking and what is real. The best part of the movie is the new ending they put together using a moving diorama like we made in middle school. It's hilarious and worth making it through the film. The rest of it is ho-hum and not really my sense of humor, but I can appreciate that it's potentially really funny (I also didn't like Best in Show, which I'm told is very funny). 2.5 lambs/stars
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9 comments:
Oh man, now I'm torn! I've read elsewhere that this isn't very funny, and Netflix guesses I'll give it no more than a 3. But that last sentence made me question possibly seeing it b/c I love Best in Show and all those other Christopher Guest mockumentaries.
I think you'd probably enjoy it, and it's pretty easy to fast forward on Watch Instantly, and my only issue became with Yi's laugh, which I think you'd love if you got to know her, but is the kind of laugh that can get grating, but otherwise, I could see laughing at it. It's sometimes like the Daily Show humor when they just let people talk and people say stupid things.
ha ha. I like how you called him a one-note monkey!
@Tom- it was a reference to the banana stand but thanks.
I sort of just liked the whole subject of the movie. The interviews with various real people about what love is was very interesting to me.
The Yi/Cera relationship thing is the clear fiction part of the movie, but I enjoyed it despite not caring much for Cera.
Humor is a very subjective experience. I found the movie funny, but I can understand how some people wouldn't.
David, I was reading your review just before I wrote mine, and I didn't disagree with almost anything in your review, just that I didn't find it as funny. Very subjective movie.
I feel like the film got so caught up in being original that it forgot to stop being predictable. You just knew exactly what would happen all time. It was charming and sweet at a few points, but I don't ever remember laughing.
(And I think Guest movies like Best in Show are best appreciated after a little bit of time to digest.)
Rachel - Nooooooo! (I'm running after you trying to stop you from renting this)
I don't think this is comparable to Best in Show (or any Guest mocku) at all, mostly because this idiotic project couldn't decide if it was a real doc or a fake doc. It starts off acting as though it's entirely a real one, and save for the non-doc styles thrown in - including the diorama, which was indeed badass - it feels like one.
But then you read elsewhere that they more or less staged the Cera/Yi dates for the movie, and that the guy that's shown to be the director (with whom Yi often chats with) is actually an actor playing the director. WTF?
I ended up detesting the idea of this movie, even if the people and/or scenarios they're in can often be humorous.
Julia and I didn't think this movie was that funny either, even though we usually love Michael Cera's delivery (Arrested Development). Also, we didn't think Year One was funny either even though it has a lot of the Arrested Development actors and a lot of the Jedd Apatow actors in it too.
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