Weber, who also did the screenplay for what is probably the pinnacle so far of this mini multiplex youthquake, 2013’s “ The Spectacular Now,” as well as 2009’s “ (500) Days of Summer.“ Its director, Jake Shreier (“Robot & Frank”), is once again a relative newcomer hungry to establish himself with a low budget and a troupe of charismatic mostly unknowns. The current Green adaptation, “Paper Towns,” might not possess the same exhilarating highs and somber lows as “The Fault in Our Stars,” b ut this teen drama wrapped around a human enigma does share more than a few commonalities, including the same savvy writing team of Scott Neustadter and Michael H. That it managed to open to $48 million domestically and grossed $307 million worldwide offered hope that kids born during the past decade and a half will someday have their answer to “ Rebel Without a Cause” or even “ The Breakfast Club” to cherish. The honest treatment of the subject matter, the beautifully rendered characters, the mordant humor and the respectful way the relationships were drawn - including those concerning parents - elevated what could have been a maudlin weeper into cathartic nirvana. But it reduced me to an immensely satisfied blubbering puddle of tears-and happily so. I’m not even in the same time zone let alone ballpark of the target demo for last year’s hit based on his “ The Fault in Our Stars,” which starred Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as two cancer-stricken kids in love. The primary source for this 21st-century upgrade of teen-angst cinema is the sensitive, grounded-in-reality novels written by John Green. Somewhere between the overwrought gothic romance of “Twilight” and the gross-out ribaldry of “ Superbad” exists a funny-sad expanse of melodramatic normalcy aimed at young adults that owes more to the issue-oriented “Afterschool Specials” from ‘70s TV and John Hughes than to Dracula and the Farrelly brothers. There has been a slight if significant shift in the types of films aimed at adolescents lately.
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