LAFF 2009: PAPER HEART

Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera offer write on comedy in Paper Heart.


Yi gads! To kill a mockumentary with wit and style

By Ed Rampell

Actress/comedian/co-writer Charlyne Yi asks the big questions about love in a lighthearted way in Paper Heart. This is, I suppose, a mockumentary about the nerdy, gawky 20-something Yi not only searching for romance, but trying to find out if she is lovable and capable of giving love, and if love even exists. Paper Heart is also a road trip that extends from La-La-Land’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams to Las Vegas’ chintzy chapels for faux Elvis weddings to Paris, the City of L’Amour (and I don’t mean Louie). Along the way there are plenty of laughs, and also some poignant moments mixed in with the drollery as Yi searches for elusive love.

After Yi starts dating Michael Cera, who plays his apparently awkward self (a good counterpart if not foil to Yi), the co-star of 2007’s Juno and Superbad begins to chafe at being tailed by pseudo-documentarian Nicholas Jasenovec (the name of the film’s actual director, who is portrayed by actor Jake Johnson) and the filmmakers’ constant invasions of privacy. As such, in addition to offering wit and wisdom about the nature of love, Paper Heart also has something to say about our media saturated society and unreal “reality” TV obsessions. (Wouldn’t it be funny if, in real life, the eponymous Nanook of the North and Moana of the South Seas really hated documentarian Robert Flaherty, for being a butt-in-sky and constantly shoving cameras into their faces at their igloos or huts?)

Keep your peepers peeled for cameos by actors such as Seth Rogen. Also adding to the merriment is what may be a droll aside about low budge indie filmmaking, as various scenes, such as a motorcycle crash, are reenacted in charmingly cheap but visually inventive ways. With her self-deprecating humor based on her insecurities and quest for companionship, the beguiling, bespectacled Yi emerges as a sort of female Asian Woody Allen-esque character (and I don’t mean Soon Yi).

Paper Heart was one of LAFF’s wittiest and best offerings this year; if you missed it during the film festival, don’t miss it when this marvelous mockumentary is released. And as for cutie pie Yi questioning of her ability to love and be loved: Yi of little faith!