The Paper Store

source: The Paper Store

Actor W. C. Fields observed that "Some contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch ... If a thing is worth having, it's worth cheating for." On the surface, "The Paper Store" is about cheating in the plagiarism of term papers. But at its heart, the film seeks to offer a broader slice of life of academe today. Miss Annalee Monegan has a brilliant mind that she puts to use in writing papers for university students and charging a hefty fee. Mr. Sigurd Rossdale is also a gifted intellect who pays for Miss Monegan's services to get through required courses so that he can focus on his Masters thesis. The couple starts an unorthodox relationship that is stormy and lacks an emotional connection. Mr. Marty Kane is the instructor who discovers the cheating when Miss Monegan turns in Mr. Rossdale after she feels betrayed by him. As a consequence, Miss Monegan is not punished for committing fraud, but promoted to teaching assistant while the instructor Mr. Kane pulls together his tenure dossier and only requires that Mr. Rossdale rewrite his papers. The filmmakers failed to capture even the basics about tenure at a university. An adjunct like Mr. Kane would not be considered for tenure unless he spent five or six years on a tenure-track. And the tenure committee would not care about whether he was grading undergraduates too high or a graduate student too low. Such a committee could care less about teaching and would only be evaluating Mr. Kane's research dossier and publication record. The strength of "The Paper Store" was in the well-crafted dialogue, especially the repartee between Miss Monegan and Mr. Rossdale. The interchanges were lively and served as a parody of the arcane theoretical jargon of a liberal arts course in film art. Some of the commentary about the films of David Cronenberg was so far-fetched that the heart of the discussion addressed abstract matters that Cronenberg would likely have never considered in his ghoulish yet imaginative films. The three principal actors were outstanding in capturing the fluff of today's academic discourse. And the film was successful in raising the question about the true value of an education today. If their years spent in the academy were to have an intrinsic meaning to students' personal lives, it was not apparent in any of the students depicted in this film. As portrayed in the film's closing scenes, the only goal would appear to be a worthless diploma.

This film is as exciting as watching paint dry. I would rather have watched a science review of dung beetle mating. The film has no value, the cinematic release of the Flintstones Movie has more theatrical value.

The Paper Store couldn't have been more boring if it tried. It's about a woman who writes college essays for students (hence The Paper Store, buying college papers), who gets bought by one student to write exclusively for it. The first 20 minutes of the movie felt like an adult movie, with all the sex scenes taken out. The acting is on par with that. We see the couple meet, go back to his place, kiss, fade to black. This then repeats in a coffee shop, and again his place. There is a storyline about her trying to get revenge on him, because he doesn't care enough, but the overall movie was so bad, and the delivery so atrocious, it was hard to care. The one saving grace in the movie is Richard Kind, the professor giving the class she is writing the essays for. He brings some sort of credibility to the role, and rides the line of a professor who seems to care about his student, but really only cares about himself, quite well. This movie devolves into a he said/she said but frankly I don't care either way.