Paper Heart (DVD)

Paper Heart (DVD)
(Overture/Anchor Bay)

(****/5)

There are a lot of reasons to dislike this movie, from the played mockudrama tone to the playful, but distracting aesthetic provided by Paper Heart’s source, Charlyne Yi. But cynicism be damned if this isn’t at least one of the more entertaining films I’ve seen in a while.

One of the last movies I saw and enjoyed was “GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra” because I like to see shit get blown up. “Paper Heart” has no explosions, per se, but what it lacks in a multi-million dollar budget, it makes up for with a solid story.

I think one of my main gripes of “documentary” styled films is that it’s almost an excuse for people to not act well (Paranormal Activity, say what?). Here, Yi’s precociousness plays to the films advantage as a twenty-something who is making a movie about love and all the while, falling in love in her own right.

In between Yi’s story, there’s still the whole movie-within-the-movie bit where people are telling their own engaging stories of romance which are punctuated with thematically cute puppetry.

The DVD version of “Paper Heart” comes with really great extended interviews of some of the comedians and actors that Yi talks to, as well as a music video for the catchy song she plays with Michael Cera.



--Ryan Pangilinan