There really is little consensus about Green’s books. Are they genius or cliche? Intelligent or condescending? Irritating or enlightening? Personally, I think Green’s books are popular for good reason. He subverts the formulaic tropes that book reviewers love to trot out with really really REALLY great characters and surprising poignancy. Paper Towns is certainly not an exception. Love it or hate it, Paper Towns is still going to be a movie you adult types will want to see.
Paper Towns is the story of Quention (better known as Q) who grows up in love with his quirky, unattainable next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman. After years of being ignored by Margo, Q is surprised to find her in his bedroom one night, dressed like a ninja, and asking him to play getaway driver to her midnight revenge plot on a cheating ex-boyfriend. Thinking his life and luck has changed, Q is devastated to find Margo has completely disappeared the next morning. And that’s where the first Paper Towns trailer comes in.
Does that look familiar?
Yeah I get it. John Green’s books tend to follow this same formula: loner nerdy guy becoming mesmerized by the attractive and enigmatic girl only to find himself on a epic quest to win her or find her. Dissenters find this yawn-worthy at best, and at worst, problematic and unrealistic. But John Green’s prose has always (for me) risen above some of the problems I find with the more predictable plots. The second trailer reminded me of this.
Ah yeah, there they are:
The Reasons I Want to See This Movie
1. The Sidekicks
Radar and Ben were easily the best part of Paper Towns, and unlike most YA books they don’t play second fiddle to the budding romance. This story is about these three friends, and while they are hilarious characters on paper, it looks like Austin Abrams and Justice Smith have made them compulsively watchable as well.
2. The Script
Again, I’ll say: it’s John Green’s words that make his books. This screenplay was written by the same team who penned The Fault in Our Stars, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (who also wrote the upcoming Me Before You), and I loved the way they handled Green’s words and his wordiness. I’m looking forward to quotes like:
“As long as we don’t die, this is gonna be one hell of a story.”
“Isn’t it also that on some fundamental level we find it difficult to understand that other people are human beings in the same way that we are? We idealize them as gods or dismiss them as animals.”
“Poetry is just so emo.” he said. “Oh, the pain. The pain. It always rains. In my soul.”
3. The Road Trip
All hail Cara Delevingne, who is turning into a major star. Truth is though, she won’t be in the bulk of this movie. The search for her is basically the whole thing. The road trip, and the realizations about friendship that come out of it, is the best part of the book and really takes this movie from typical end-of-senior-year high school fare into something more relatable.
4. The Little Things
I see you World’s Best Grandma T-shirt. There better be Black Santas.
5. Get Lost Get Found Tour!!!
Dude, above all else, John Green movies get the BEST FANDOM EVENTS. For all you Nerdfighters out there, this one is for you.
Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, John Green, and friends are going on tour to support the movie, and fans get to decide where they go! Fans can vote for their state to be a destination of the ‘Get Lost Get Found’ tour on the movie’s official Tumblr, PaperTownsMovie.com.
All 50 states (and DC!) will be represented by a Tumblr post which fans can like and reblog to vote for their state – one note on Tumblr equals one vote. Voting started yesterday and ends Monday, June 15th. Winning states will be announced June 22nd and the tour will kick off on the week of July 13th. Get lost. Get found. Go vote for your city here
Paper Towns hits theaters July 24th. Will you be seeing it?
