Interesting and frequently moving documentary but it misses several opportunities to widen the scope and make some important points.
Comment
10/14/06
Paper Clips (2004)
71 %
Reviews Counted: 51 Fresh: 36 Rotten:15 Average Rating: 6.3/10
Consensus:
A touching, though somewhat flat, documentary that follows a homogenous class of white Protestant eighth graders as they learn the importance of tolerance by erecting a monument to the 6 million victims of the Holocaust.
Rated: U
Runtime: 84 mins
Theatrical Release: 04-08-2006
Synopsis: The town of Whitwell is a tiny community of about two thousand people nestled in the mountains of Tennessee. Its citizens are almost exclusively white and Christian. In 1998, the children of Whitwell Middle School took on an inspiring project, launched out of their principal's desire to help... [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Reviews
Click to read the article
09/23/06
Top CriticClick to read the article
08/05/06
Top Critic
Who knew a movie that seeks to remind us of one of the greatest horrors in human history could be so unintentionally hilarious?
10/27/05
Paper Clips is a nice social interest project, but not much of a documentary.
10/25/05
Click to read the article
07/21/05
Top Critic
For the documentary to shift credit to the paper-clip project as a reason for receiving the speakers is tantamount to fraud.
06/01/05
This is a modest film with a big heart that leaves you thinking that Anne Frank got it right: Basically people are good.
05/13/05
The film is constructed simply, even amateurishly, but the power of what's being done comes through loud and clear. The material is far better than the movie.
05/11/05
It would be easier to forgive first-timers Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab for their offenses against good documentary filmmaking if they weren't messing up such sure-fire material.
05/06/05
Somebody forgot to tell Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab that a noble cause does not a movie make.
05/05/05
Paper Clips is two movies: the movie its makers think it is, and the movie it actually is. One of them is pretty good.
05/05/05
Segments shot in hindsight pale in comparison to the actual, effective, and emotional recollections of survivors who come to Whitwell to share their past with the school.
04/27/05
The Tennessee middle school’s story is worth hearing, but rather than a feature-length documentary, it’s best suited as a short TV newsmagazine package.
04/26/05
Related Forums
PAPER CLIPS - You've never heard a story like this, not from 8th graders mouths!
by: Darko, Donnie 4/12/06
by: Darko, Donnie 4/12/06
What a Documentary!
by: bigorangefan 5/17/04
by: bigorangefan 5/17/04
IGN RSS Feeds