“Paper Moon” showed a life changing personal journey between two characters. The actors were real life father and daughter, which enhanced their connection on film with a remarkable performance from the both of them. When “Moses”, also known as “Moze”, is unexpectedly given the task to bring a nine year old, Addie, to her relatives in another state, he is forced to take her on. The film brought in humor, while also sparking a meaningful connection between the two characters.  

      “Paper Moon” is a 1973 film in black and white. The drama was directed by Peter Bogdanovich and released by Paramount Pictures. The film takes place in Missouri and Kansas during the Great Depression. Tatum O’Neal and Ryan O’Neal are daughter to father in real life, making the acting much more natural. In this film, watch the relationship of two strangers become family.

     Addie Loggings may be young, but she is not dumb. Knowing that Moses needed to give her the 200 dollars someone gave to him for Addie, she threatened to tell the police all the bad deeds she has seen him do if he didn’t give her the money. Moses is a conman who played games with people. He does things to get what he wants. After only hours, he brings Addie into his lying games and makes her pretend to be his daughter. After her mother’s death, Addie needed companionship and a friend to look after her, even though Moses is a conman, she still found that in him. 

       An important scene from the film was when Moses left Addie in the photo booth at a carnival and she was left to take pictures on the crescent of a fake moon by herself. Moses was distracted by an exotic dancer and her maid made friends with Addie. He had a thing for Trixie, the exotic dancer, and Addie and the maid devised a plan to catch Trixie in this act of cheating because they knew she was not to be trusted. In this scene, Moses comes to find that Addie is the only one he can trust, thus comes the name, “Paper Moon”.

     I liked the movie and would recommend it to others. Personally, I think it would better suit adults rather than kids. I think that older people may be more drawn to the movie because they will appreciate the storyline more than children would. Watching the connection between Addie and Moses evolve throughout the film would enlighten adults. The children watching would be more into it for the humor. The movie was never boring to watch, like when Moses never planned to tag a little girl along with him on the road, but when she had nowhere else to go, he took her on his trip so she could be dropped off at her aunts because the rest of her family had died. The unexpected pair became unstoppable and no matter what Moses did, Addie was always by his side. Moze’s plan was to drop off Addie off to her family in another state, but Moses quickly became her family. Watching the connection between the pair become more intense throughout the film made it very enjoyable to watch, especially knowing the actors had a great connection off screen too. The movie was exquisite and people should definitely give it a chance.