I am going to put this out there. I love Michael Cera. Love him. As far as I am concerned he can continue to play the same character until he dies and has to be forcibly extracted from the set of whatever movie he is playing an awkward adolescent in. But I was disappointed with Paper Heart. This faux documentary about actor/comedienne/performance artist Charlyne Yi and her search for love is so busy being cute, clever and self aware that it forgets to say anything about anything.
The film is framed as a “documentary” and follows Charlyne (allegedly playing a fictional version of herself) on a road trip around the U.S. to interrogate the idea of love, which she herself does not believe in. She is joined by the director 
Nicholas Jasenovec (the actual director of Paper Heart but played in the film by actor Jake M. Johnson), who is her confidante and creative advisor. Along the way Charlyne meets Michael Cera (playing himself. Or a fictional version of himself. I am not sure) and falls for him. The film follows their epically awkward interaction as it develops into something more over the course of the film.
Breaking up this burgeoning romance are interviews with real (I think) long term couples who attempt to explain the love in their own relationships. There are the high-school sweat-hearts, the gay couple, the family court judge and divorce lawyer. Often Charlyne re-creates their stories using endearingly crude puppetry, her own smiling, bespectacled face visible behind cardboard mountains and cellophane trees as they recount the beginnings of their love affairs. These anecdotes, like the film itself, have a certain quirky charm. A scene in a school playground in which a remarkably precocious boy gives Yi relationship advice is cute and winning. However, only one moment resonates with any kind of truth or honesty. A member of a 
gay couple describes the death of his boyfriend, his voice breaking as he attempts to lighten the moment with a quip as his present partner looks on sadly. It is the only piece of honesty or emotional complexity in ninety minutes of screen time.
It must be said that Yi has a certain awkward appeal, and the film is never boring. And there is also Michael Cera playing himself or George Michael (did I mention that I love him?) But there is just nothing here of any substance and the earnest attempt to blur the line between documentary and fiction is contrived, painfully self conscious and kind of stale. The running gag of “this scene won’t make it into the final film” isn’t really that funny the first time it is done, let alone the third.
In the end, the most profound thing Charlyne has to say on the nature of love is that you need to take a leap of faith to experience it.
Duh.
——
Director: Nicholas Jasenovec
Writers: Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi
Cast: Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera, Jake M. Johnson
Release date: out now
“This faux documentary about actor/comedienne/performance artist Charlyne Yi and her search for love is so busy being cute, clever and self aware that it forgets to say anything about anything.”
LOVE this – I think it sums up the a particular sub genre of recent indie films