NYPress.com – By Eric Kohn
Paper Dolls: Directed by Tomer Heymann
Exploring an unusual bond between religious Jews and Filipino trannies
Transvestite Filipinos sing and dance in Tel Aviv! Fifty years ago that would?ve fit the posters for low-level cheese from the Ed Wood school of crap. Now that we?ve moved past such unabashedly exploitative times (wink wink), it isn?t hard to see how Paper Dolls could garner a respectful following. Even today, however, it poses a tough task for marketers: Tomer Heymann?s documentary doesn?t feature worshipful character sketches (a la Spellbound) or political grandstanding (a la Michael Moore?s oeuvre), but it has a little bit of both. The result is sad, funny and often enraging?all those great things?but also frequently uneven.