Paper Man

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Kevin M This movie is an odd indie film from 2009, that much is very obvious from the beginning. And unfortunately it really only gets more weird and cringy as the movie goes along. A fact that has nothing to do with Emma Stone and Jeff Daniels, who are actually really good, but the entire story and concept is just so strange. It’s basically a romance between Stone, who plays a high school kid and Daniels who is very much 50 years old. As a huge fan of Emma in particular, I was sitting there wanting to enjoy the nuance of her performance because as far as I can tell this is the first time she really gets to show off her dramatic ability and she is really really good, but I just get caught up in the fact that it’s a fkin romance between a teenager and an old man, which for some reason also has Ryan Reynolds playing a superhero in his mind. And honestly I was waiting for the story to come around and not actually be a romance between them but it just kept pushing along and not realizing there was anything wrong with it. It could have been a really good movie if they just had her be like 20 instead of 16, and executed the superhero thing better. It’s at times a really touching heartbreaking story that gets completely unraveled by this very strange romance and Reynolds character, who looks absolutely ridiculous btw, pop in unevenly throughout. If they would have had him in an actual superhero costume and take it a little seriously, it might have worked but he’s wearing like a cheap Halloween Superman costume with bad hair dye and eyeliner, and does nothing to actually advance the story. Ultimately I think this is a decent snapshot of where quirky indie cinema was in the late 2000s with an interesting cast who are now enjoying big success in Reynolds, Stone, and Culkin. But I just couldn’t get past the weirdness of the relationship between the main two characters. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 10/11/24 Full Review Ken S A fantastic cast with a quirky, unpredictable yet heartfelt story. By focusing on the value and need for genuine relationships at any age, the movie delves into what happens when we shut out those around us and give up on our ability to contribute to the world. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/04/24 Full Review TorQue M Oh, I'm shocked this bombed so badly. I love quirky and weird movies like I Heart Huckabees or Defendor or even the Dirk Gently show on Netflix. This is right up there as one of my favorites. I can understand it's a niche genre, but it's not a terrible movie like everyone seems to think. Ryan Reynolds got me interested, Emma Stone sold me on it, and Daniels and Kudrow were great additions. Definitely recommend this! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/08/24 Full Review Dani G Very unknown little film, that's actually not bad. It's not great, of course, but it's nice to see the very young Ryan and Emma in these leading roles, especially her (carrying much of the load of the story), showing what will come later Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/16/24 Full Review Cash S Paper Man was not what I thought was going to be at all. I thought it was going to be a strange indie dramedy about a writer whose superhero creation comes to life and the superhero and Emma Stone would help the writer overcome some personal struggle as well as Emma Stone learning a lesson. Instead it's a very strange film that doesn't have Ryan Reynolds in that much, and is kind of boring. Jeff Daniels and Emma Stone are really good in this, great even, but their characters develop a very strange relationship that I don't think overall worked as well as it should've. I see aspects of a really good story, and times the relationship between the characters is done very well, but it just wasn't executed well. There's also times when I just wasn't invested in the story, and the movie just moved too slow. I also felt like the movie was just too quirky at times, and it just didn't work for me. I think this is still a very watchable film, but it really didn't work for me. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/24 Full Review Mikaela S Still thinking about this one years later Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 08/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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