SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

lexidietrich-43870 Defiantly a unique story, the acting was amazing and sincere as well.I'm not a huge fan of the pacing of the movie, but I suppose I'm more used to the traditional plots points of a movie. The story was interesting, I could never guess where it was heading.However, I could never sty fully invested in the movie, at times it felt dragged out.The plot twist at the end was some what predictable, in the sense the idea crossed my mind, but I doubted the movie would actually follow through. It was pleasantly surprising.Overall 6/10 due to the poor pacing and how hard it was to keep invested. But the themes and the ideas behind the story remained strong.

Ben Holden Wilby Rule 1, never watch a trailer, I watched it AFTER watching the film and am seriously questioning the mental state of the head of marketing of this film. It is not a comedy, it is a character piece, a drama I guess, but NOT A COMEDY.It's good, I liked it, for me a 7/10 is a solid film, not bad, but not a a masterpiece. The strength comes from the amazingly good acting and writing. It makes you feel stuff, including awkward, which is good, because that is what movies are supposed to do. Don't be swayed, everything in this film is deliberate, if you felt it, the director wanted you to feel it, that is what good films do.As I said, acting and writing is superb, and it really comes together in the last act. Starts slow, but it's not boring, just hang on.I think Captain Excellent works, I don't really know why other people think it didn't, but I never mind breaking the immersion of reality in films.Good film, go watch if you like characters and stuff.

Koustubh Bhattacharya To an outsider who has never visited The United States, the culture over there may seem odd and the intrusion of brands and technology in people's lives really intimidating. Its hard to judge by looking from far if that's what is all there or is there more. Hollywood usually avoids subjects that are too close to the heart. They make big budget action movies and more recently superhero movies because they sell. They do good business in overseas territories. Mostly Asian markets like China, India and Philippines. Otherwise, there are Oscar tropes that are based on extraordinary stories. Pursuit of Happiness, 7 Years a Slave or Wolf of Wall Street kind of movies give outsiders the idea of an America that may have existed in a certain point in time or tell a story of someone's American dream. Movies that talk about a mundane, somewhat rustic social life of really boring and average Americans are hard to find. That is where Paper Man excludes itself from mainstream cinema. It acts as a lens for the global citizen to see America as a truly free country and shows what happens to a society that has calmly settled for a secure and mediocre lifestyle. No one in this movie is attempting to excel. There are no restrictions other than what the characters have put upon themselves. The traditional family is gone and gender roles reversed. Men have become whining, nagging sobs whereas women are cleaning up after them. Women have so much potential but at the end they have to drag their feet just to make their men feel secure about themselves. The warmth is gone obviously. Sounds all too familiar? Guess what! Americans are not that different after all. Life is mostly unremarkable and it is true for most people in the world so why make a movie about that? It's pointless right? Wrong! There has to be a place for simplicity and contemplation for everyone otherwise we'll all become competitive robots processing canned food. There should be a chance for course correction. The actors in this movie are some of my favourite ones. I love how Jeff Daniels can be dramatic and comedic at the same time. Lisa Kudrow's looks appear to be frozen in time. She is so much more than Phoebe from Friends! If only she did more movies. Emma Stone is just brilliant. Well, her presence in this movie compels me to draw similarities between Paper Man and Bird Man! Both had imaginary characters, both are about struggling and stuck up artists coming to terms with their reality. Well one is about an author and the other is about and actor. I've already said enough.

DeusExKatrina Some reviews seem to have pegged this as a mere indie romp, the quirky, gushy type that hasn't felt novel since the mid-00s. That tag doesn't quite do Paper Man justice. Sure, the surface style is a bit derivative. We've seen older men forging an inappropriate relationship with a high school girl before (Juno, American Beauty), and we've seen plenty of cutesy indie films about 20-something would-be-artistes struggling to grow up and get a real job (Flakes, for one). But this movie is quite a bit more deranged than all that. These characters aren't merely eccentric, their idiosyncrasies hover well past the line into downright pathology.First we have our protagonist. Not a disillusioned 20-something hipster, he's a man well into middle age who has no real job, no social skills and still clings to a (sometimes abusive) imaginary friend. Somehow this man with no prospects and no skills is married to a successful surgeon who isolates her maladjusted, delusional, slacker husband up in a rural cabin believing that -- somehow -- leaving him to his own devices and letting him run amok in solitude will help to repair his crippling mental state. Finally we come to Abby, a teenage girl so desperate for companionship that she tolerates a neglectful slob of a boyfriend, a deranged, obsessive stalker who follows her wherever she goes, and a middle-aged married man who lures her to his empty house under the guise of a babysitting job. Her response to being set-up by this pervert? She makes him soup. If her parents exist, they don't much concern themselves with her, and she has no other acquaintances.This is an intriguing character study with some decent heart to be found. It's fascinating to explore these broken individuals and the movie's definitely worth a watch. Unfortunately, the courage with which these characters were created is not matched by the movie's highly formulaic ending, which largely glosses over their more serious instabilities. However, with so many otherwise solid indie projects these days ending abruptly with far too little closure (Not Fade Away, Palo Alto), I'm willing to accept a little undue schmaltz from Paper Man. The cast also garners mentioning. With Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Lisa Kudrow and Jeff Daniels, they couldn't have put together a better ensemble for this film. The performances are entertaining enough just on their own merits.