Paper & Glue movie review & film summary (2021)

In several vignettes, JR is partnered with his longtime buddy, Ladj Ly. The duo are kindred spirits due to their love of photography and their upbringing in the projects of France. JR came to public housing as an immigrant, feeling lost until he got his hands on a camera. Ly, the focus of one of JR’s most famous compositions, grew up in Montfermeil’s Les Bosquets “B5,” the building that serves as the climactic installation in “Paper & Glue.” “It is the ghetto of all ghettos,” Ly says, and over the years, it was being dismantled to make way for newer housing. (Ly’s 2019 film about Montfermeil, “Les misérables,” was nominated for a Best International Feature Oscar.)  “B5” is the last remaining remnant, and as a farewell, the two embark on one final testament to the people who once lived there. When the building is destroyed, these pictures will crumble along with the façade, a symbolic reference to the past.

Before we get to that, JR narrates his own history, focusing on several projects to show the methods to his madness. He mentions his need to document everything, which gives us access to some stunning videos and footage. Starting as a graffiti artist (there are startling pictures of him navigating roofs and other dangerous areas that taggers crave), JR graduated toward pasting gigantic pictures of anonymous people in unusual locations. The pictures are literally “in your face,” featuring the subjects making faces or looking at the beholder with a wide range of emotions. This engagement was often a protest, forcing the viewer to engage with a person for whom they may have judgmental notions. That famous picture of Ly features him holding his camera like a gun, daring folks to engage with someone from a place non-residents did not dare to visit.

I love movies about process, and this film is chock full of scenes showing how things get done. One of the first works we see is a border wall installation that spans both the U.S. and the Mexican sides. JR talks to some border patrol guards who repeatedly answer any mention of the wall with “what wall?” In Tecate, Mexico, he finds a family willing to let him take pictures of their baby son, Kikito, in a playpen. This becomes the main feature of a very large installation that, shockingly, the border patrol allows to be built. Kikito looms large as he looks over the border fence. Underneath the mural, JR and his team build a table on the Mexican side so that people can meet and mingle. He devises a clever way for folks on the U.S. side to join in, turning his art into an international social event.

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