Paper Towns Review Roundup: What Did Critics Think About the Cara Delevingne Movie?

She stars in the mystery dramedy film with The Fault in Our Stars' Nat Wolff

By Corinne Heller Jul 24, 2015 3:07 PMTags

Cara Delevingne brings on the charm...and the crazy in Paper Towns, a new mystery dramedy film.

The movie is based on a 2008 young adult novel by John Green, who also penned The Fault in Our Stars. Delevingne, 22, plays Margo, a troubled, impulsive girl who reconnects with his school crush, Quentin Jacobsen, or Q, played by Nat Wolff, 20, and embarks with him on a revenge mission against her ex-boyfriend and others she feels have wronged her. One day, she seemingly disappears and Q, with the help of more friends, sets off to find her, using what appear to be clues he thinks she has left behind.

Paper Towns also stars Austin Abrams, 18, who played a friend of Carl's on The Walking DeadCrisis and Neighbors star Halston Sage, 22, and actor Justice Smith. The movie was released on Friday.

20th Century Fox

These mark the most prominent onscreen roles for Delevingne, who is better known for her modeling work and often funny poses, and for Wolff. The actress had previously appeared in films such as The Face of an Angel and Anna Karenina and also stars in the upcoming supervillain film Suicide Squad. Wolff previously played Isaac, a boy with eye cancer, in The Fault in Our Stars, and also starred in the film Palo Alto.

Check out what five critics said about Paper Towns.

1. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gives the movie three out of four stars.

"Supermodel Delevingne wears down any resentment of yet another Brit playing an American teen," he writes. "Her flashing eyes and throaty voice indicate the star power to make it in pictures that move. And Wolff is terrific, giving us a romantic image of confused youth to root for. OK, Paper Towns plays it safe, but its leads are irresistible so we're never sorry."

2. IGN.com's Brian Forno says Paper Towns is "the most enjoyable high school movie of 2015." (And it's only July!)

"Paper Towns loves the characters created by author John Green (The Fault in Our Stars) and each step of the way feels natural (if not entirely believable) because director Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank) and screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber (The Spectacular Now, The Fault in Our Stars) allow them to be who they love. And I loved these guys together."

He also makes an interesting comparison.

"This is Delevingne's first large role and the model (and Suicide Squad member) plays Margo as if she were Orange Is the New Black's Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) but given 10 suburban-steps ahead in life," he writes. "That is to say, as an actress, Delevingne mostly communicates with eyebrows, hair pushes, and a knowing overbite."

3. HitFix's Gregory Ellwood says Paper Towns is "just a paper movie in a not-so-paper world."

"Delevingne's performance is strong enough to make it all seem fresher than it really is," he writes. "Even when she has to utter insipid lines such as, 'I'm just a paper girl in a paper town' (that's just a sample). Of course, it all becomes much less compelling when she's off screen for a good chunk of the movie."

4. The Los Angeles Times' Rebecca Keegan says Paper Towns "unfolds into a solid high school movie."

"There's an old-fashioned chasteness to their banter—even about sex—that's charming in part because it's so rare in modern movies," she writes. "It seems unlikely anybody's mom will get angry about Paper Towns."

5. USA Today's Brian Truitt calls Paper Towns a "teen charmer" and gives the movie three out of four stars.

"All gawk and nerdy charm, Wolff effectively captures Quentin's universality as a boy so into a girl he's bound to do anything, even go searching for a 'paper town,' a fake town placed on a map to prevent copyright infringement," he writes.

Delevingne, he says, "imbues her enigmatic role with a lot of soul. Not only does the audience understand why everybody falls for Margo, even though she's frustratingly flighty, but Delevingne has such an unmistakable magnetism, you miss the supermodel newcomer when she's not around for half the movie."

Watch: Cara Delevingne Debuts American Accent