Paper Heart 2009

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: There's a lot to love here. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Fact and fiction intermingle in Paper Heart, but discovering where the line is drawn is the tricky part. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Every beat of Yi's manufactured crisis of faith feels as pre-programmed in its own way as a Michael Bay movie. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Still, the stylistic games reflect Yi and her generation's larger dilemma. Paper Heart is a movie that can't commit about people who don't know how to. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Paper Heart manages to work the meta mostly magically thanks to the sensibility brought by Yi, whose stand-up persona blends a childlike naivete with an almost perpetual state of shy embarrassment. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [An] unbearably twee mockumentary about the meaning of love. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's all kind of silly and amorphous, but the scenes between Yi and Cera, whether or not they were scripted, have a babes-in-the-wood loveliness. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Slight, silly, sweet and, yes, quirky, Paper Heart doesn't really have a whole lot to say, but it says it in a unique and inventive way. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: This diverting riff is as much a spoof of film-school self-seriousness as it is a sincere art project, enhanced by Yi's great, homemade puppets. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Yi's overgrown geek girl shines, but tellingly, none of her best scenes have anything to do with holding hands with Cera, Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Paper Heart is way more innovative than the formulaic romantic comedie s that all too often trek through the multiplex, and a much-needed refreshing change. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Cute? If you say so. Funny? If I had a nickel for every time I laughed, I'd have a dime. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Funny, passionate and honest. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Paper Heart is like a really special five-minute YouTube clip that goes on for an hour and a half. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Paper Heart gets by on easygoing charm, rather like Yi herself, whose low-fi comedy is built upon us rooting for her, perhaps hoping that surely there's more magnetism to her than this. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's easy to see how this quirky, offbeat approach could seem refreshing within the rarefied, hermetic atmosphere of a festival. Elsewhere, however, it comes across as amateurish and considerably less charming. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A quasi-documentary about love that is sweet, true and perhaps a little deceptive. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Enjoying this wondrous wisp of a something is easy, describing it is hard. Luckily, Charlyne Yi is an enchantress. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Paper Heart is a cute movie, a little too cute and a little too aware of its own cuteness. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Your appreciation for this shaggy dog project will probably depend on your enjoyment of Yi as a screen presence. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: This movie may be sickly sweet, but it's harmless; and as a handcrafted antidote to a toxic toy story like G.I.Joe, Paper Heart has healing properties. Read more

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: This breach with the audience does matter, for it is one thing to seduce your viewers and quite another to trick them. Love is all about trust, after all. Read more

Jason Anderson, Toronto Star: Only intermittently engaging and too timid to be satisfactorily funny or insightful. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Karina Longworth, Time Out: Read more

Sarah Cohen, Time Out: The segments featuring real people are genuinely affecting, but the realisation that everything else is probably being acted - that truth may be polluted by hoax - gives this otherwise lightweight film a sly, subversive edge. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Even the most cynical are likely to be won over by the unassuming charms of Paper Heart. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: These people are touchingly, often humorously frank about their most profound interpersonal connections, offering a range of definitions of love -- although the pic stacks the deck by keeping Yi the only real skeptic on hand. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: Cera begins ingratiating himself into Yi's quest, but that part of the story is doomed from jump: It's entertaining for a moment, but hardly as enlightening or endearing as the from-the-heart moments surrounding it. Read more