Paper Man

Paper Man - Dirs. Kieran & Michelle Mulroney (2010)

Indie films sure love odd, emotionally damaged characters. First-time filmmakers Kieran & Michelle Mulroney throw their lot into the mix with Paper Man, which started as a script they workshopped at the Sundance Institute.

Jeff Daniels plays Richard Dunn, an author struggling to write his second novel, a book about the extinction of the heath hens. His wife (Lisa Kudrow), a successful vascular surgeon, rents him a cottage in a seaside town in Long Island to give him a chance to clear his writer's block and a break from their rocky marriage. However, Dunn spends most of his time wallowing in self-pity and talking to his childhood imaginary friend, Captain Excellent (Ryan Reynolds), a garishly-clad superhero. He also builds a couch out of copies of his first novel and rides around on a children's bike because it's all so wacky. Dunn bumps into the resident brooding teenager in Abby (Emma Stone), who has a mopey best friend (Kieran Culkan) and a Neanderthal for a boyfriend (Hunter Parrish). He hires Abby to be his babysitter for the night, despite the fact that he has no kids. When Abby learns the truth, she shrugs it off as well as any form of common sense. And thus begins a strange and platonic friendship between two fellow outsiders.

Paper Man is like a patchwork cobbling of Lost in Translation with a 21st century hipster version of Harvey. It's filled with indie movie clichés like the quirky, paper-cut title sequence and the Elliot Smith-esque, sullen guitar score. Daniels is solid in the lead, but he's already portrayed the stunted, intellectual writer in The Squid and the Whale and The Answer Man. We're supposed to feel for his crumbling marriage, but it's a difficult proposition to sympathize with a couple of whiny, well-off Manhattanites. Emma Stone basically plays the Kat Dennings/Olivia Thilrby role. To her credit, she brings a warmth and soulfulness to an ironically paper thin and stereotypical character.

Ryan Reynolds certainly looks the part of a superhero with his bleached blonde hair and goofy looking tights. He does his best, but the Captain Excellent scenes are just a car wreck. They are just astoundingly unfunny and simply shoehorned into the narrative. He could have easily been cut from the picture, if not for the fact that the Mulroneys deemed it necessary to add another eccentric layer to their film.

Paper Man deserves to be tossed into the recycling bin. It recycled ideas from better movies without capturing any sense of raw emotion.

Rating: * ½

Easy A

Easy A - Dir. Will Gluck (2010)

Easy A might be the surprise hit of the summer. I wasn't expecting much, but it is several notches above recent teen comedies that favor raunchiness and gross-out gags.

Emma Stone has seen her star rise steadily since debuting in Superbad. She cemented her status as one of the most talented actresses today with roles in The House Bunny and Zombieland. Even in subpar movies like The Rocker and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, she's able to shine. In Easy A, Stone receives her first starring role as Olive Penderghast, a virtual non-entity attending high school in Ojai, California. To avoid going on a camping trip with her best friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka), Olive tells her she's got a date with a boy who goes to community college. The boy doesn't exist and Olive actually spends her weekend at home giving the dog a pedicure and listening incessantly to Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine."

Olive's little white lie begins to spiral out of control when Rhiannon jumps to the conclusion that her BFF lost her virginity to this imaginary boyfriend. Olive rolls with it and the news that she busted her cherry is spread all over campus by Marianne (Amanda Bynes), the self-righteous leader of a circle of Christian conservatives. Next, she's approached by Brandon (Cougar Town's Dan Byrd) who is constantly bullied due to his homosexuality. They concoct the plan to fake having sex at a wild party to pass Brandon off as straight. Soon, Olive is trading pretend sexual favors for gift cards in order to bolster the reputations of the school's geeks, losers, and fatties. One gawky kid can only sheepishly offer a coupon to Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Taking inspiration from The Scarlet Letter, Olive decides to really roll with it by dressing provocatively and embroidering a big red A on her clothing. Before nobody knew she existed, now Olive is turning heads wherever she goes. However, her newfound notoriety isn't all it is cracked up to be considering no guys have bothered to ask her out on real dates.

Easy A doesn't have the bite of the darker edged Heathers. It doesn't have the resonance of the John Hughes films it references multiple times, even if the redheaded Emma Stone reminds one of Molly Ringwald. Still, there is an underlying level of poignancy, especially given the recent spotlight shown on teen suicides. The cruelty seen in Easy A never reaches those same levels, but it comment on the difficulty of adolescence and the damage that can be done by rumor mongering. Aided by text messaging and the internet, gossip spreads like wildfire within seconds. Despite her new status, Olive has no one to confide in. Her best friend turns against her and her parents (Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson) would rather be her pals than her parents. Seeking guidance from the school counselor (Lisa Kudrow), Olive is given a handful of condoms instead along with a curt brush off.

Easy A does ask its audience to make a few leaps of faith. As with the majority of teen movies, the young cast is comprised of 20-something actors who still look too old to be in high school. The point is joked about in Marianne's boyfriend (Cam Gigandet) who has been stuck as a senior for almost four years. It's also hard to believe that Emma Stone could ever be invisible. She's pretty, charming, and almost carries the picture. I say almost because some of the adult actors provide notable performances. Tucci and Clarkson are hilarious as the free-spirited parents, Thomas Haden Church appears in an understated, yet funny turn as an English teacher, and Malcolm McDowell is good as the school's uptight principal.

Rating: ***