Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Long ago I abandoned pretty much any and all interest in Mockumentaries. Once upon a time they were clever and fresh – but after a while they wore thin. They were too cheap and easy to produce, so we were inundated with them. There have been Mockumentaries on almost every topic, from life stories to bank robberies to serial killers to giant monster attacks to zombie uprisings. Some good. Most not. And I’m just bored to tears by them now unless they do something I’ve never seen before – like the upcoming DISTRICT 9 or something like CLOVERFIELD. Meanwhile, as noted in my YEAR ONE review, I’ve grown weary of Michael Cera’s shtick. I think he’s a great guy, and really funny – but that wore thin when placed in a historical comedy and only served to highlight what people have begun to complain about.
So if there was one person in the audience tonight who shouldn’t have connected to PAPER HEART, it was me. But I did. In fact, I really fell for it. This is not your ordinary mockumentary; it is a fusion piece merging authentic interviews - with both celebrities (many of star Charlyne Yi’s comedian friends) and real, down home heartland Americana interviewees - on the topic of what LOVE really is, with an a faux documentary about this young comedian beginning a relationship with Michael Cera (playing himself.) The lines of this documentary become so blurred that it becomes hard at times to distinguish which parts are real and which are fiction – the result being the audience just giving in and buying the whole thing (or at least most of it.)
The bulk of the film’s charm rests solely on the shoulders of the Charlyne Yi – an adorable awkward pixie of a woman from the Dmitri Martin/Napoleon Dynamite middle school hipster comedy school of entertaining. She’s weird; but delightfully so. She’s that ill at ease tomboy who hasn’t quite gotten a grasp on the whole relationship thing and is going around, making a movie about figuring it out. And I found her not only completely endearing, but enchanting. She’s hard not to love, with her paper doll plays and goofy expressions – everything we’ve seen so many emulating, but this girl nailing.
The film is pretty normal as far as standard documentaries go – until that is Charlyne meets Michael Cera at a party. Cera, who had seen her perform, pulls all the typical boy antics trying to fawn over her, which she simply doesn’t know how to handle. Here Cera does everything people are starting to get tired of – but rather than playing a character, he’s playing himself. And somehow he makes the whole thing fresh, as if we’re really watching this awkward comedian try to woo another awkward comedian. And these two have a perfect hipster comedian chemistry together that just works – creating in mocumentary format the kind of thing people fell for in JUNO and were looking for in NICK AND NORA’S INFINITE PLAYLIST.
I loved the goofy little thing. It’s really a heartfelt, fun ride that captures the clumsy, inelegant bumbling of young, dorky love. I’ve known girls like this and watched as they fell into these exact same relationships – and watched them screw it up the same way. The film’s only real hurdle is that it is very, very, very hip. Almost too hip for its own good. And those inclined to dislike things based upon how close to the popular edge they dance will find plenty here to mock – despite its good heart. Personally, I felt that it was never disingenuous – that these young comedians really are on that razor’s edge. But it’s safe to say that if you’re someone who rolls their eyes at the post-JUNO attachment to awkward youth – this will give you plenty to gripe about.
Overall, it’s a tidy little package that makes for a great, offbeat, quirky date movie that nails absolutely everything that it aims for. I'm eager to begin seeing Yi do a few more mainstream projects. Definitely recommended.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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