Paper Boys

The whole very gentle pace of filmmaker Kyle Cabral’s  entertaining new web series is determined by the fact that its the story of a group of 20 something-year-olds who all seem to be aimlessly drifting through life unfocused and undeterred.

Cole, the main character played by Cabral, has turned up in San Francisco on a whim ostensibly for his best (straight) friend’s engagement party and also for a job interview. Neither of those events actually pan out well, nevertheless he is going to stay as he has already packed in his NY job and apartment and the luggage he arrived with contains all his worldly possessions.  Oh yes, he also has plans to troll his ex-boyfriend Max (Henry Lee)  ……. ‘the one that got away ‘ ……. who very recently moved to the city 

Cole is a frustrated artist and spends most of his day sketching away in his notebook when he suddenly realizes he, or the book, have special powers as whatever scenario he draws suddenly becomes  a reality in life..  Somehow though it doesn’t stop his own life being a series of mini melodramas.

Cole’s best friend Darren (Nathan Brown) confesses to him although he loves his girlfriend Rebecca (Kai Liu), he doesn’t actually want to marry her and as he is too much of a wimp (that’s our description BTW) he implores Cole to do the dirty deed for him.  A very inebriated Cole carries out the task but  the only thanks he get for his endeavors. is that he castigated as the baddy of the piece.

When Rebecca throws Darren out of the apartment he and Cole slink off to crash at Max’s place where Darren ends up on an air mattress, whilst Cole gets much luckier.

If you look behind the cliche of a young gay man running off to San Francisco to find his dream man/job/life etc, Paper Boys has a lot more going for it than just that. Ir’s rare to see not only an Asian actor playing the lead in a web series that has significant gay content, but to see a whole diverse cast with him too. Together they tackle the realities of living in one of most expensive cities on the world., and how as millennials they have still yet to figure out where  they fit in the world.

Written by Curtis Casella and Kyle Cabral, Paper Boys has surprisingly high production values and is well-acted too, but it does demand some patience as this story is evidently going anywhere fast.