Last week I watched Paper Heart. It is a movie unlike any other that I have seen before in terms of genre. It is kind of a mock documentary (or mockumentary of you will) but only kind of because it is very different from other films of that ilk. The first thing that sets if apart is that it is kind of a romantic comedy. This is very different from say the straight comedy of Best in Show or any of the other Christopher Guest gems. Similarly it is quite different from horrors like The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield. But the thing that really sets Paper Heart apart (rhyme!) was the blurring of the line between fact and fiction. Granted, that is sort of the idea with a mockdoc (that's right I said it) but this was a little different, and it felt that way.
I did a little research into the film (translation: I looked it up on Wikipedia...get used to it) and the idea for the film started with Charlyne Yi wanting to make a documentary about her disbelief in love. The film's director, Nicholas Jasenovec, then thought it was a good idea, but would be even better if there was a fictional story within the film. That fictional story is a love story between Yi and Michael Cera. So lets review really quickly. Charlyne Yi has trouble with the concept of love, so she does interviews with people all over the U.S. about love. Then Yi, as an actress, starts a relationship with Cera,who is playing himself. Thinking about this at length causes there to be a little bump on the top of my head. That bump grows and grows until the top finally erupts in a magnificent volcanic display of confusion, while trails of wanting-to-understand boil over the sides. Ok, that is a bit dramatic, but the point is that Yi is an interviewer for the documentary who doesn't believe in love. Simultaneously she is playing a character (who happens to be herself) who doesn't believe in love but is in a relationship. The trouble for me stems from where one ends and the other begins. This is compounded by the fact that Cera is acting and playing himself, while there are a host of other actors, Seth Rogan and Dimitri Martin especially, who seem to be giving honest interviews instead of acting. There is one scene in LA at a party where both interviews are conducted and the characters Yi and Cera first meet. While watching the film, these two almost conflicting aspects flow together seamlessly, but in review it is a much more complex piece of work. Kudos to Nick Jasenovec for piecing the two together so well. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Nick the director appears on screen and is also a character in the film...played by Jake Johnson...which I didn't know until I watched the credits...phew!
The film also has a lot of feeling, or as my Grandma would say,"Schmaltz". This came not so much from the awkward "acting" that is so synonymous with "indie" films (I will probably have a rant about "indie" films soon enough) but from the genuine stories people told about love. The divorcee in Nashville who said that a vision of his ex-wife saved him from a frigid watery death. The biologist in Lubbock that said that there is some magic to love that goes beyond biological chemistry. The Oklahoma City couple that was married in high school and told the lovely story about the birth of their 2nd child. The gay couple in New York, who my some what liberal sensibilities had me hoping for. All of these peoples' true stories were heartwarming. They made me feel like I should have watched this movie with my girlfriend because she probably would have thought it was romantic of me to think of it...or maybe she would have just thought that all the guys in the movie were decidedly more romantic than me.
I did a little research into the film (translation: I looked it up on Wikipedia...get used to it) and the idea for the film started with Charlyne Yi wanting to make a documentary about her disbelief in love. The film's director, Nicholas Jasenovec, then thought it was a good idea, but would be even better if there was a fictional story within the film. That fictional story is a love story between Yi and Michael Cera. So lets review really quickly. Charlyne Yi has trouble with the concept of love, so she does interviews with people all over the U.S. about love. Then Yi, as an actress, starts a relationship with Cera,who is playing himself. Thinking about this at length causes there to be a little bump on the top of my head. That bump grows and grows until the top finally erupts in a magnificent volcanic display of confusion, while trails of wanting-to-understand boil over the sides. Ok, that is a bit dramatic, but the point is that Yi is an interviewer for the documentary who doesn't believe in love. Simultaneously she is playing a character (who happens to be herself) who doesn't believe in love but is in a relationship. The trouble for me stems from where one ends and the other begins. This is compounded by the fact that Cera is acting and playing himself, while there are a host of other actors, Seth Rogan and Dimitri Martin especially, who seem to be giving honest interviews instead of acting. There is one scene in LA at a party where both interviews are conducted and the characters Yi and Cera first meet. While watching the film, these two almost conflicting aspects flow together seamlessly, but in review it is a much more complex piece of work. Kudos to Nick Jasenovec for piecing the two together so well. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Nick the director appears on screen and is also a character in the film...played by Jake Johnson...which I didn't know until I watched the credits...phew!
The film also has a lot of feeling, or as my Grandma would say,"Schmaltz". This came not so much from the awkward "acting" that is so synonymous with "indie" films (I will probably have a rant about "indie" films soon enough) but from the genuine stories people told about love. The divorcee in Nashville who said that a vision of his ex-wife saved him from a frigid watery death. The biologist in Lubbock that said that there is some magic to love that goes beyond biological chemistry. The Oklahoma City couple that was married in high school and told the lovely story about the birth of their 2nd child. The gay couple in New York, who my some what liberal sensibilities had me hoping for. All of these peoples' true stories were heartwarming. They made me feel like I should have watched this movie with my girlfriend because she probably would have thought it was romantic of me to think of it...or maybe she would have just thought that all the guys in the movie were decidedly more romantic than me.
I'll bet that shooting the film was pretty easy. They probably just said to a few cameramen, "Here take these shoulder cams make sure that there aren't too many shots of Yi and Cera that are totally still." Here again an "Indie" film aesthetic, which has bled over into more mainstream film. All and all most of the shots in the film were forgettable, with a few exceptions. The silhouette shot at sundown on the beach was great, as was the scene from the poster where Charlyne and Michael try to escape the prying cameras. There was also a pretty hilarious juxtaposition in Las Vegas of a strip joint across the street from a wedding chapel where they conducted interviews. What was really fantastic were the crude puppet sequences. The majority of the puppets were made of paper (get it? Paper Heart?), wire, and cloth. This simple aesthetic juxtaposed to the mastery of the mise-en-scene of these scenes was great.
Paper Heart was a film that made me both think and feel. I find that this is kind of a rarity. Many movies are enjoyable because they make you feel something. They can be heartwarming like Rudy, terrifying like Paranormal Activity (another mockumentary), or any other feeling or emotion or combination there of. As a side note, I just tried to watch the preview for Paranormal Activity 2 by myself in dark room...I got about 5 seconds in and called it a day. Feel free to laugh at my expense, I would probably do the same to you if the shoe were on the other foot. On the other hand, other movies like Inception (although maybe not a great example because it invoked some serious anxiety) or The Inside Man are great because they stimulate your mind, and in the end you respect and appreciate the amount of thought that went into the film. If a movie can do both, it should be considered a success on all fronts.
Thanks for reading and keep watching.
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