Further Recommendations: Paper Heart

...and then shipped elsewhere.



Let's begin with Paper Heart. The best part about recommending or reviewing movies that have been out for four years is, well nothing. The gamut has pretty much already been run, though I'm not entirely certain what the gamut even entails. Skeet shooting? Anyhow, Paper Heart, takes on that ever rising art form, the mockumentary. Listen, Christopher Guest pretty much set the bar for this years ago, and it took everyone else a hell of a long time to catch on. One of the strengths of this movie is the degree of authenticity that some of the mock interviews are imbued with, such that, midway through the movie, I found myself Googling just to make sure that I was watching a mockumentary and not some doc/mock hybrid.

In general people enjoy movies about love. In general people also enjoy movies with Michael Cera in them because he is delightfully awkward. In that way this movie does not disappoint. Michael Cera is largely awkward, and the movie is quirky. The highlight of the quirks are scenes acted out by paper cut outs that are voiced over by the interviewee. This both works and his funny and unique. All good things.



The movie also deserves some praise for its sexlessness. It is sort of cleansing to watch a movie that is funny without it being domineered by crudity or sexuality to the nth degree. In fact, it's just sometimes nice to watch a movie in which sex is just kind of off the table. The question is love.

Does this quirky sexless movie really amount to anything in the end? Sort of. I found myself struggling by the end of the movie to generate any sort of empathy or interest in what happened between the two leads, which is, in the end, what the movie seems to attach importance to, perhaps to it's detriment. I don't know. I like things that end as well, and giving a movie an end that involves the resolution of a possible love relationship is a time honored tradition. However, in this case I think a bit is lost if you find yourself more interested in the (seemingly) random encounters with interviewees than the "main" relationship. Perhaps this movie wanted to be something more, but it winds up being a quirky and fun way to spend an hour and half, which there is nothing wrong with, and certainly puts it in a class above a number of the dross out there, but I don't think it gives much more. The question is really whether that entertainment is enough. For me, yes.

The Fourteen big Ideas according to the Atlantic

14. Green Revolution is Neither: Essentially, as a proportion we're actually using less green energy in 2011 than we were in 1997. I think we just need to talk more about green jobs. I'm looking at you Obama. Only, not really because I hear about them all the time. Maybe instead of abolishing the EPA we could just classify them all as green jobs. In short, troubling, yet not surprising. We will stop using fossil fuels when they are used up.

13. The Maniac Will be Televised-Essentially, large personalities draw bigger ratings. I'm looking at you Sarah Palin. However, we've been hearing about the cult of personality forever, perhaps the only thing that's changed is its shelf life.

12. The Players own the game: Essentially: pro sports as slavery. IE, you have to work at the same company until your contract is up. Problem: it's hard to generate much sympathy for guys who make millions of dollars playing a game. Unless that game is soccer because soccer is boring, and I feel bad that those guys have to be bored all the time.

11. Gay is the new normal: Essentially, as our society has become more accepting, according to polls, of gay marriage and homosexuality in general, people from gay marriage opponent organizations are starting to claim that they're being marginalized. Uhmmm, I don't think we're there yet guys. It's still illegal in 45 states. No whining about being marginalized.

10. Bonds are dead-I don't understand monetary policy, and this article did nothing to change that. The point is, you should be investing in race horses. Race horses are the key to future riches.

9. The next war will be digitized-I think the point of this one was that we'll be playing video games in our next war, which seems like a good idea.

8. Grandma's in the Basement-Uh, more families are now living together in multi-generational units. I think we can all agree that being a good American involves making a lot of money, striking out on your own, and humoring your parents at the holidays with a phone call or two. This is deeply distressing.

7. Public Employee, Public Enemy-My wife works for the government at the EPA. Believe you me, I remind her every day that if it weren't for her we'd all be doing fine economically. Then I recommended some more tax cuts. The point of the article is that most mayors et al underpay public employees on the front end and load up their pensions on the back end causing the financial burden to fall down the line. Not good.

6. Wall Street: The Same as it ever was-These bastards are rich again. How fast can I get my MBA and start working at B of A.

5. The Arab Spring is a job crisis-No worries. Once the power of the free market hits these democratic governments everything will be fine. Move along.

4. Elections work-In praise of the Tea Party. Hey, at least they got people sitting on their hands to think about the fact that they might want to vote every once in a while if they don't like what's happening.

3. The Rich are different than you and me-They are rich. It's pretty much an Ayn Rand novel out there right now. Whatever happened to Marx?

2. Nothing stays secret-Interesting aside on the whole, Pakistan arrested the six military employees who cooperated with the U.S. in helping them to nab Bin Laden. Naturally the initial reaction is, what the hell is up with that guys? However, if a bunch of U.S. citizens cooperated with China on helping to eliminate someone in our country, we might ask a couple of questions as well. However, I don't want Wikileaks et al to stop us from being Team America, World Police.

1. The rise of the middle class-just not ours-In short, your wages have since 2002 have decreased. However, the upside is that the rising class of consumers in Brazil, China, et al will allow us to bestow the glories of the free market and consumerism on the rest of the world. Meaning, crappy jobs for all! Huzzah!