Paper Towns

Courtesy of 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Temple Hill Entertainment, and TSG Entertainment

Based on the bestselling, John Green penned, novel of the same name, "Paper Towns," follows the familiar story of the wannabe high-schooler who meets a dreamy girl and everything falls into place. Trying to subvert this stereotypical storyline, John Green's novel deals in themes of loneliness, fear, depression, and anxiety. The film takes a lot of the original spirit of the novel while subverting the story, taking out all the meandering teenaged angst and replacing it with a fun, understated film.

 It's not that the book is bad, but it often gets caught up in trying to be deeper than it need be. Though the book is unlike a lot of other fairly known teenage comedies, everything feels inauthentic, from the trashy dialogue to the meandering plot. The film boils the story down to the essentials by changing the plot points around completely. It drives the story forward, makes for a better understanding of the characters, and simplifies a lot of the pithy, juvenile inner dialogue, making for a much more mature and enjoyable experience.

 The best changes from book to movie come from the improvisational dialogue between the lead characters. While the book's dialogue felt really awkward and unrealistic, there was a genuine, heartwarming quality to the conversations between Q (Wolff), Ben (Abrams), and Radar (Smith). There's even a scene where they are buoying themselves from fear by loudly singing the Pokémon theme song. The scene felt strangely goofy and realistic. John Green even revealed during a Buzzfeed interview that there was a lot of improv onset and that some of the goofiest lines came when the camera was supposed to stop rolling.

 If you loved "TFIOS" and are a John Green fan in general, you will absolutely love this film. If you didn't love the book but want to like this movie, then lucky for you, this film delivers. “Looking for Alaska" is up next, and I'm giddy with excitement.