Paper Towns Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Paper Towns Blu-ray Movie Review

The fault in the map of our stars.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 23, 2015

For those who grew up loving film music and especially film musicals, notably (no pun intended) a couple of iconic titles from the sixties like West Side Story and Oliver!, the name John (or Johnny) Green will forever be associated with one of the more legendary composers and arranger/orchestrators of his generation, a guy who in fact took home Academy Awards for both of those aforementioned movies (as well as previous statuettes for Easter Parade, An American in Paris, and a short subject of Green conducting the Otto Nicolai penned Overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor). Green also wrote a number of (sorry for this) ever- greens from the Great American Songbook, including the torchy “Body and Soul”, but his work in the film industry, which included scores of scores (so to speak) for any number of non-musical films (like Raintree County ), may be his best remembered achievement. Chances are younger folks, especially teens, would have a completely different referent for the name John Green. The so-called “young adult” literary market has a “new, improved” John Green to lionize, so to speak, one whose teen themed novels have led to his inclusion on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, not to mention both a Number One bestseller and Number One box office hit with his massively popular The Fault in Our Stars. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the team who adapted the screenplay for The Fault in Our Stars, have similarly tackled Green’s Paper Towns, but the results are not quite as felicitous, owing perhaps at least as much to Green’s initial formulation as to any hurdles the adaptive process itself entailed. The film will no doubt still appeal to its target demographic, and while it probably lacks the emotional punch of The Fault in Our Stars, it manages to convey some salient content about teen angst and especially the disconnect between perception and reality.

Paper Towns doesn’t traffic in the physical infirmities that were at the core of The Fault in Our Stars, focusing instead on a certain psychological angst that is experienced by its ostensible heroine Margo Roth Spiegelman (Cara Delevingne). IIt's worth noting that the character is more often than not referrred to with all three names, in a perhaps overly precious formulation.) Margo had been a close friend of neighborhood boy Quentin Jacobsen (Nat Wolff) back when the two high schoolers were much younger, but over the years, they’ve drifted apart, probably more to Quentin’s regret than Margo’s. When Margo suddenly shows up at Quentin’s house one night, asking for his help on a kind of reconnaissance slash revenge mission against a coterie of other high schoolers, Quentin is intrigued and obviously excited to be reuniting with someone he may have held an unrequited torch for. That “mission” creates what Quentin thinks is a bond between the two, but when Margo suddenly ups and disappears, Quentin is thrown for a loop, at least temporarily. He soon becomes convinced, however, that this is all part of an elaborate ruse by Margo, one that is meant to be a scavenger hunt of sorts for Quentin which will obviously (in his mind, anyway) lead to her discovery at whatever hideaway she’s gotten herself to.

Even some who consider themselves relatively well versed in the ways of the world might have never heard of the concept of a so-called “paper town”, but this fascinating little tidbit of copyright history (yes, copyright history) provides not just the title of the film, but a chief metaphor and an underlying clue to the presence of Margo. Back in the days when people actually used good old fashioned paper maps (obviously long before the internet and cloud based GPS systems), mapmakers used to include fictional locations which acted as a kind of “watermark” differentiating their maps from everyone else’s, and therefore easily leading to the identification of thieves should someone else suddenly be proffering a map with the same nonexistent locale. These fictional locations were called “paper towns”, and one intersection which was given a name by its mapmaker actually ended up becoming a town (more or less, anyway), called by that very made up name, when settlers started building structures there. All of this plays into the mystery element of Paper Towns, even if the underlying interest remains more solidly on character, and indeed how Quentin has tended to idealize (and maybe even idolize) Margo.

While the film does a fairly good job in detailing Margo’s penchant toward leaving clues and loving mysteries, as well as her somewhat roiling psyche (as evidenced by her frequent attempts at “escaping” her home life), there’s a relatively less artful explanation of why exactly Margo chooses to disappear this time, not to mention the fact that she herself admits to leaving clues for Quentin, even as she denies that they were left for him to be able to find her. The film therefore plays like a road trip (with four colorful supporting characters aiding Quentin in his quest) without a cathartic denouement. That may actually be relatively true to life, if not a building block for a consistently satisfying viewing experience.

Paper Towns Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paper Towns is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Digitally shot with the Arri Alexa, Paper Towns pops most convincingly in brighter outdoor sequences, where a natural looking palette and excellent detail are able to shine most vividly. There are long dark or dimly lit segments to the film, however, including the extended "snark hunt" revenge scenario that fills much of the first half hour, as well as some shrouded moments as Quentin and his buddies search for Margo, and these moments tend to suffer from only midline shadow detail. While not aggressively color graded (at least not in the typically hyperbolic contemporary manner), there's a nice slightly saffron hue that overlays some of the summery outdoor footage that's quite inviting, even if it tends to minimally mask detail at times.

Paper Towns Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As might be expected from a film highlighting the lives of teens, Paper Towns' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is full of source cues (from a rather wide array of artists), and the film's use of music provides some of the most consistent surround activity in the presentation. A lot of the "road" sequences have their fair share of nicely placed ambient environmental sounds. Dialogue is cleanly rendered and is always well prioritized on this problem free track.

Paper Towns Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 3:54) also offer an optional commentary by Jake Schreier and John Green.


• Alternate Scene: "Shake It Off" (1080p; 1:57)


• Paper Towns: The Making Of (1080p; 21:09) is an assemblage of EPK type featurettes with some decent interviews.


• John and Nat: Lightning Round (1080p; 8:04) is a kind of Q&A with the author lobbing questions at the star.


• John and Cara: Lightning Round (1080p; 5:15) is more of the same.


• Gag Reel (1080p; 3:08)


• Promotional Featurettes: Van Chats:

  Memorable Moments (1080p; 1:04)

  Coming of Age (1080p; 1:15)

  Road Trips (1080p; 1:15)

  Lurlene (1080p; 1:02)

• Audio Commentary by Jake Schreier and John Green. This is an enjoyable if not overly informational commentary, with lots of shout outs to various cast and crew members.


• Gallery (1080p; 2:04) offers options for both an Auto Advance and a Manual Advance. The timing is for the Auto Advance option.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:26)

Paper Towns Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Paper Towns has a few plot points which aren't properly explained and/or developed, and it has nowhere near the emotional impact of The Fault in Our Stars, but it's generally a genial and genuine feeling film, one which benefits from the naturalistic performances of its star duo. There's a certain hackneyed feeling to some of the supporting characters and what they encounter while searching for Margo, and the wrap up to the putative "mystery" may strike some as too sanguine for its own good, but this film's target demographic will probably find enough here to enjoy. Technical merits are generally strong, and Paper Towns comes Recommended.