What drew me into “Paper Heart” was how adorable Charlyne Yi was. Here is a normal girl, maybe a bit too frumpy for Hollywood standards, trying to make it big. Oh, I so wanted her to succeed and take the business by storm!
And this seemed to be such a great pilot for her career (although her bit role in “Knocked Up” was pretty darn funny). It’s a twist on the romantic comedy genre, almost lampooning it and criticizing it for the ideas that it puts into our heads about how a relationship should be. Inside the movie, Charlyne makes a documentary about how she doesn’t believe in love when all of a sudden, Michael Cera shows up and sweeps her off of her feet. From afar, it seemed to be so original and introspective.
As much as I wanted it to succeed, what could have been original turned out to be quite predictable. Thankfully, it wasn’t predictable in conventional or clichéd ways. Let’s think about this, what’s going to happen if you are trying to start a romantic relationship when you have camera crews following you around everywhere. Obviously, a major strain is going to develop and communication is going to be severely hampered. Any person who can think logically will have figured this movie out within a matter of minutes, and the other 90 will only serve to confirm what you already know.
Yet there’s something about “Paper Heart” that makes it impossible to really hate. It definitely feels very genuine, and Charlyne Yi is able to connect really well to the movie because she wrote it. Throughout the “documentary” portion, she interviews people and asks them what they think love is and why they believe in it. She gathers up some interesting suspects, from science professors to schoolyard kids to married couples. These views are presented, and you can agree with whomever you want. It’s just like Burger King; you can have it your way. There’s something rather satisfying about that. B / 
So many friends and fellow bloggers always talk about Netflix. “I’ll add this to my Netflix queue,” someone will say. “Forget theaters, I’m waiting for it to come out on Netflix,” others have said.
Before I started movie blogging, I watched four TV shows religiously: “Lost,” “The Office,” “30 Rock,” and “SNL.” But I now feel an obligation to spend whatever free time I have watching movies – after all, I don’t write a TV blog.
Recently, I’ve been reading quite a bit on how to better reach people with my blog. A constant suggestion is the use of social networking.
Those of you who read this blog in December and January know that I’m kind of obsessed with the work of director Jason Reitman. While doing some research on him, I came across some of his cinematic influences. One of the filmmakers he lists is Alexander Payne. I had seen one of Payne’s movies, “Election,” but I decided that I needed to further explore. “Sideways” was good, but it’s not something people my age are supposed to get. The movie that really struck me was “About Schmidt,” so much in fact that I even decided to call it my “F.I.L.M. of the Week.” (And just for the sake of the occasional refresher, the acronym stands for First-Class, Independent Little-Known Movie.)
Yesterday, “How to Train Your Dragon” passed $100 million at the box office, a reliable milestone signifying success finding an audience. Naturally, I think this calls for an Oscar Moment discussing its chances in the Best Animated Feature.
Marshall and the Movies 
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