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Review

The first thing that you need to know about The Paperboy is that it's a mess. The plot (which I won’t even get into – see the synopsis above) is difficult to follow and often illogical, the thick, almost cartoonish Southern accents are frequently indecipherable and the whole enterprise has the vibe of a trashy paperback novel masquerading as attempted high art. That said, the movie is rarely boring. Like the proverbial train wreck that you can’t look away from, The Paperboy proves a wildly captivating cinematic fiasco despite its myriad flaws.

Filmmaker Lee Daniels made his directorial debut with 2005’s equally batshit Shadowboxer (a customer favorite thanks to nude scenes featuring Stephen Dorff and Cuba Gooding, Jr.). Anyone who saw that film could have told you that Daniels has a taste for exploitation (many critics did), but four years later he took almost every award show by storm with Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire and dramatically increased the value of his brand. He was even nominated for a Best Director Oscar® alongside established veterans Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow. Precious doesn’t betray the director’s penchant for shock and horror, but it also features superb performances worthy of the nominations they received and takes an unflinching look at inner-city child abuse – all-too common in the real world, but rarely depicted in the movies.

With pedigree firmly in place, Daniels was able to snag A-listers Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack and Zac Efron for his follow-up, but The Paperboy doesn’t have the real-world social relevance to make up for his seedy self-indulgences. Based in 1969 Florida, the film tries to say something about Southern racial tension post-Civil Rights movement, but all of that takes a backseat once Nicole Kidman squats over Zac Efron on a public beach and pees on his jellyfish stings (in an incredibly unnecessary, already-notorious scene ripe for parody).

The Paperboy has a lot going for it that should appeal to gay audiences. First and foremost is Zac Efron. That boy has been eating his Wheaties and he’s got the body to prove it. Daniels, unafraid to exploit his male actors’ fleshy assets, has Efron wearing only his tighty-whities for what seems like at least half of his screen time. When his character isn’t lounging around the house in his briefs making masturbation jokes with housekeeper Macy Gray (the movie’s frequently absent, yet suspiciously omniscient narrator), he’s out and about in a tight, sweaty wife beater trying to convince Nicole Kidman’s trashy death row groupie (a drag queen-impersonation-ready character if I’ve ever seen one) to take his virginity. Also relevant is the fact that (spoiler alert!) Matthew McConaughey, as Efron’s older brother, plays a closeted reporter whose fetish for being used and abused by rough trade gets him into some violent, life-threatening trouble.

Lee Daniels may not be the "prestige" filmmaker that the Academy Awards suggested a few years ago, but his work is provocative and consistently interesting – to say the least. If he’s able to get his next project off the ground (a rumored biopic of Janis Joplin staring Amy Adams), I’ll certainly be curious to see it. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a bizarre, boozy Hollywood flop to watch with a group of snarky friends, you could do a lot worse than The Paperboy (your copies of Showgirls and Mommie Dearest need a rest anyway).

 -- Robert O'Neill