“The Paperboy” is a film that revels in its own trashiness. Director Lee Daniels shows no restraint in his attempt to shock the audience with the sheer audacity of what happens in his film, and it genuinely makes you turn to the person next to you and ask, “Did that really just happen?” The moment which best sums up the outrageous nature of the film is a scene in which Nicole Kidman urinates on Zac Efron. Yes, you read that correctly. In Lee Daniel’s film “The Paperboy,” Nicole Kidman urinates on Zac Efron.
I want to imagine that this is Daniels somehow critiquing the way in which our culture treats its sex icons, with a sex symbol of the 1990s defacing one from the tween generation. But more than likely it is just Daniels having fun with his film and trying to make something shocking and jaw-droppingly enjoyable, and he definitely achieves this. And this is what is so bizarre about this film. It has all these completely ridiculous scenes, which are clearly there for pure entertainment, yet at the same time there is some serious subtext concerning race, gender and class.
It is a special feat how the film manages to handle its subject matter with such subtlety yet also be as scandalous and over-the-top with some of the more graphic scenes. “The Paperboy” makes brilliant use of its hot southern location, and the film almost sweats off the screen due to the steamy nature of the love triangle at the center of the film. The plot is a mess, but the style Daniels brings and the incredible performances he gets out of his actors more than make up for it.
Matthew McConaughey continues his recent career renaissance with a brilliant performance as a journalist investigating a death row inmate. His character has a surprising back story which requires a daring display, but McConaughey throws himself completely into the role and manages to steal the film. Zac Efron, an actor who has been flying under the radar recently, plays McConaughey’s younger brother and fellow investigator. His character in “The Paperboy” is the most grounded one, which allows for everyone else to turn the crazy up, and he brings a certain nuance to the role that shows he has the potential to move away from his Disney roles and become a legitimate Hollywood actor.It is far from a perfect film, the plot loses its focus much too early in, and the narrator could not be any more unreliable, but despite all its flaws, it is so easy to shrug them off and just go along for the ride. “The Paperboy” has “cult classic” stamped all over it, from Nicole Kidman’s sultry performance to John Cusack’s surprisingly brilliant turn as a deranged death row inmate. I can imagine that 20 years down the line, people will be looking back at this film as an unappreciated classic. The film may seem like a joke, but Lee Daniels is definitely in on it.
