Paperboys (Documentary)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Film: C+

 

 

A few years ago, the local newspaper decided to eliminate the tradition and employment of kids delivering newspapers in my area.  There was an uproar and many stopped reading newspapers altogether.  They still have delivery, but leave that to a few adults and delivery has suffered, as if print media did not have enough troubles.

 

Mike Mills’ recent documentary Paperboys (2000) examines how the old stand-by job that helped build the responsibility of millions of kids nationwide for over a century is changing where such employment still survives.  It does happen to have survived in suburbia here, but the influx of Rap and post-modernism have seeped into their lives like all previous mainstreamed media, though they also have better videogames, hyped-up wrestling, and the new phenomenon of the Internet.

 

What it does show is that the job offers these kids a moral center, but it only consists of interviews and does not try to go any further to make its points.  A comparison to the famous job’s past, or something else, but it drags and even at 42 minutes seems a bit too long for its own good.  It may make a good social study, but Paperboys is limited otherwise and only for the most interested.

 

The 1.85 X 1 image is above average, mostly because it is not anamorphically enhanced.  Cinematographer Joaquin Baca-Asay does not go for a phony or pretentious look, but nothing overly memorable.  He did get to shoot on film and it would be interesting to see further work by him.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has good Pro Logic surrounds and was well-recorded, with the hit records not sounding bad.  The only extras are a set of trailers and the short film Deformer (1997, 17 minutes), which Mills also helmed.  It has a similar laid-back look, while the sound is only simple Stereo in Dolby’s compression signal.  This focuses on Ed Templeton, a nationally popular Huntington Beach, California skateboarder.  That would seem to offer more material for a longer film than the main feature, but it offers what seems to be a very blatant view of the man by the man.

 

Mills was a Music Video and TV ads designer, but except for the application of music, you would never know.  He also has no problems with nudity, though some may have reservations, but only explicit in the short.  That seems an issue when the main feature involves kids, so know that this DVD is not for kids.  Though these are documentary pieces, Mills would likely be able to handle a narrative feature film if he had the right material.  We’ll wait for that to see.

 

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo