Paperboys Movie Review

This quaint little documentary (only 41 minutes long) investigates the daily life of a handful of real-life middle-America paperboys, an experience you can't get anywhere short of, oh, actually talking to one of your cousins for 10 minutes.

Director Mike Mills focuses minimal time on the business of newspaper delivery (they hate dogs, hate snow, they try to throw the paper straight) and instead focuses on the hopes, dreams, and lives of these pre-teens. The insights are pretty minimal, and when there's anything to reveal it's generally trite and expected. One paperboy likes Insane Clown Posse. One has a collection of Pinewood Derby-winning cars. One bemoans how "the world is getting worse" because of pollution. The parents are interviewed as well. One worries about the neighbors because they don't take time "to stop and visit."

The big question Mills posits to these kids is what would happen if the paperboy went away altogether. Perhaps the biggest insight in the film: "You'd lose the paperboy but you'd still get the paper." Hell, I'm ready to junk the paper, too.

The new DVD release of this film includes Mills' 1987 short Deformer, about skateboarder Ed Templeton.