Good On Paper (2021) Movie Review

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Okay, so in today's world, where everyone with a little bit of money, or a moderate Instagram fame can shoot a movie, there's no need to review every single thing that's out there. Simply because, well, we can't watch them all to begin with, but we also shouldn't, since cinema is something sacred and most of these turn out to be overfunded biopics with no sense of  reality, which is not something we should be promoting by writing. Good On Paper, is not that, it seemed like. First of all, just as I saw the title, I said to myself, yeah, it kinda is good on paper though. I mean, Iliza Shlesinger, pretty good comic right? And she also wrote the thing, so it will be pretty good then I say to myself. Anyways, after talking to myself on spot right then and there, I realise to watch it, see what the fuss is about. In the end, it's on Netflix, Netflix can indeed boot great productions, so why not? What I found will shock you, details in our post. Okay jokes aside, here are some mortal thoughts on the movie itself.

The movie is about Andrea, who is a comic in a big city, pretty succesful but still trying to move up the ladder, trying to also become an actress, you know, the whole package. So, when she drops her ticket on airport and Dennis picks it up, boom, instant connection right? Well no, not really, she just says, okay, and moves away. Then, the guy stalks her, buys the seat right next the her (of course, not after trying the "we're together" trick) and then acts like it's all a play of god. So they talk on plane (I know, disgusting human beings right?) and they talk more, to the point they have nothing else to talk about, good thing the plane lands just then. When getting off, she invites him to her next gig, and he shows up, and they connect after a few shots on a bar, which is owned by Andrea's best friend, Margot (Margaret Cho). After that, Dennis builds up his relationship with Andrea, and at some point they become friends with benefits, and after that a regular couple. Things get heated and ugly though, when Andrea, after a stupid amount of time, finds out that he is just not who he says he is. Short story, good on paper, won't work out in real world kind of message is what movie is going for.

The story is really, really weak. The movie barely has any context, and even when it has, it usually just repeats the same scenes with pretty much the same dialogues over and over which is irritating. Story fails to develop in every level. From start to finish, Good On Paper shows no real development on Andrea's story. Even the happy ending, which shows Andrea making peace with herself, and accepting her traits as is, is rather a boring, much expected outcome, which makes you question, what was the point then?

Now, I like all this hiding the true persona dilemna but the thing is, the movie is not really good at hiding the persona anyway. I mean, the guy says he graduated from Harvard (Was it Harvard? Whatever, something Ivy) Why not just google the thing? You can easily learn if someone did indeed graduate or not in like a second. Otherwise, I, the writer of this review, wouldn't be working my butt off just to get a diploma on law right? So, let's say you didn't know you could google that right, then why don't you just listen when your best friend tells you they did google and found nothing. I mean, the cover was all blown at that point, which was like 20 mins in or something. I mean, forging your diploma is one thing to make people believe you but... no diploma guy saying he graduated from Harvard and everyone believing that, even actual graduates of Harvard, is quite absurd. 

Character development is partly okay, partly not. Andrea, develops none in the 2/3 of the movie, and then drastically in the last 20 minutes, becoming this revenge seeker. Her friend Margo develops none. Dennis develops none at all, in fact, he really has no character, it's more of a figure to represent the "lie" when Andrea is the hero of honesty. I will give it to Andrea in development, but other than that, no character shows development, not even attempting to.

Scenery is acceptable. A lot of day/night scenes with little issues on brightness here and there, but the movie itself is actually looking pretty at most parts. Whenever I see lights, like low beam lights on shooting, with giant neon lights in the back, I say to myself, yes! Yes, it's not gonna get more natural than that! Some of the street scenes had really dark scene, but that neon effect I'm talking about saved them. Though indoor shooting was really, not good. For instance, the scene where Dennis coaches Andrea on acting, that scene is criminally underlit, and I have no idea how they missed to see that on editing but.. here we are I guess.

I wrote before, and I am writing again, I will not write good things about a movie unless I actually like it. Good On Paper, was actually good on paper, seriously, I mean it. But the thing itself is really nothing more than a drag. Too long, boring, and poorly written (Sorry Shlesinger)  I would want a better story development, more in depth characters, and for crying out loud, better acting. Still, I'm sure it will all work out just fine. Yeah I'm done. I don't wanna talk about it more. It's bad. Next!

Cinemortals Rating : 4/10

Reviewed By : Batuhan