Paper Heart – Blu-ray Review

The Flick

Charlyne Yi is a cute and sometimes funny comedian that fits perfectly within the alternative art crowd. I wasn’t really familiar with her before Paper Heart, but I quickly became a fan after watching her for a few minutes. While I don’t love her comedy, I do identify with her what you see is what you get persona. She reminds me of a female Seth Rogen, she doesn’t look like a leading lady, but she pulls it off with her own signature style.

In Paper Heart Charlyne mixes documentary with narrative storytelling. I’d say that around 50% of the flick is documentary, 40% narrative, and 10% is animated using puppets, paper, and other objects.

The documentary portion of the flick is pretty interesting. Charlyne travels around asking people about love. Since she doesn’t believe in love herself, she’s curious about how other people feel. She interviews her comedian friends Seth Rogen and Martin Starr, school kids, bikers, biology professors, country musicians, and even talks with an Elvis impersonator. As for the narrative part of the flick, she sparks up a relationship with none other than Mr. monotone himself, Michael Cera. The two of them spend time together and eventually form a pretty strong bond, which in turn makes Charlyne question her feelings about the L word (love not lesbian). The animation that is used in the flick to tell some of the stories is by far my favorite part of the movie. I really dug the handmade style of the animation and was impressed with how seamlessly it fit into the flick.

The animation and documentary portions of the flick worked for me, but the narrative portion not so much. I enjoy Michael Cera, and he’s solid here, but the narrative seems like a farce compared to the documentary segments. He fits perfectly with Charlyne and it’s totally believable that the two of them could be in a real life relationship, but for some reason I just didn’t buy it in this flick.

Don’t let my distaste for Yi and Cera’s chemistry sway you away from checking out this flick if you haven’t already done so. Like I said, the narrative portion of the flick is only a part of it, and while I didn’t love that part of it I didn’t hate it either. I love that this type of flick is getting made and getting attention in Hollywood. It’s not everyday that a small flick like this gets the attention it deserves and based on that alone this flick is worth checking out. Paper Heart is killer indie cinema.

The Blu-ray

Audio/Video

The audio sounded really good for and indie flick like this. The indie rock/pop soundtrack sounds amazing and the dialogue and animation segments sound solid as well. The video looks really good, the HD transfer is beautiful, providing the viewer with beautiful colors and a crystal clear picture.

Special Features

Making of Paper Heart: This feature is more of an interview with Charlyne Yi, who talks about how difficult it was to act in the flick and about the difficulties associated with shooting the picture. It was a cool segment, but not what I’d call a making of feature.

Deleted Scenes: I rarely enjoy deleted scenes, but I really had a great time with the left-overs provided here. Most of the scenes are worth watching and wouldn’t have hurt the flick one bit if they were left in.

Paper Heart Uncut: This is really just a blooper reel of Yi laughing and having a good time while making the flick. Not my favorite feature on here, but worth a look.

Love Interviews with the Comedians: Yi interviews her comedian friends, including Bill Hader, Bobcat Goldthwait, Demetri Martin and more. I thought I’d enjoy this feature more than I did. It’s actually pretty lame for the most part.

Musical Performance by Charlyene Yi: I really don’t care for Yi’s musical stylings, but I’m sure there is an audience for her type of music. Check it out for yourself, but I could have done without this feature.

Music Video: Cera and Yi jam another tune that I don’t like. Once again, check it out for yourself.

To round out this package there is a Trailer and a Digital Copy of the flick that could come in handy for all of you out there that enjoy watching flicks on your computer.

The Flick: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: