Charlyne Yi (Chuck), the awkward Asian-American girl with big glasses from Knocked Up, is an LA- based artist and comedian who plays herself in this faux documentary (winner of the screenwriting prize at Sundance 2009), about the making of a documentary about a girl who wants to know whether love is for real.  She traverses the country, speaking to people from all walks of life: scientists, married couples, both straight and gay, a romance novelist, a divorce judge and family lawyer who happen to be married, a psychic, musicians, kids.  All of those she talks to seem to believe in the possibility of love, and Charlyne wonders whether it could happen to her.  

Of course it does.   (more…)

After a mind-numbing movie (Cold Souls, incidentally) I was ready for the lighthearted pseudo-documentary Paper Heart to help me remember why documentary film is so important. Paper Heart follows Charlyne Yi, a stand up comedian and musician who doesn’t believe that she can fall in love. She travels across the country interviewing people about their thoughts on love while she forms her own opinion. In the process of the documentary she herself experiences a surprising twist in her love life when boy heartthrob Michael Cera shows a romantic interest. This particular movie experience was unique in that I was one hundred percent enthralled by the movie.  I absolutely loved it, until the question and answer period. I felt like a little girl at a magic show who is suddenly shocked by the curtain being removed and the trick being proved as a fraud. But the movie, independent of the director’s comments, was one of the best I’ve seen while at Sundance.

Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera

When I believed Paper Heart was purely a documentary, there were so many wonderful, unique, believable aspects of the film. The whole audience was engaged; I have never heard such raucous laugher throughout the whole thousand-plus crowd, you really fell in love with this awkward, quirky tomboy in her quest for answers. There was a very natural, behind the scenes feeling to Paper Heart, often throughout the film it would show the sound and camera equipment. In the romantic scenes with Michael Cera it would sometimes pan over to the director and crew sitting near by which made the film all the more relatable and interesting.

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