User Reviews

I'm not a Gus Van Sant fan, but I have to admit "Paranoid Park" got under my skin: it's a fascinating film. His adaptation of the novel by Blake Nelson (both GVS and Nelson are from Oregon and their oeuvre is centered around American Teenland) allows GVS to do a sort of small-scale contemporary American version of "Crime and Punishment". As in Dostoyevsky, GVS uses a gruesome killing (deliberate in Dostoyevsky, accidental here) as a motif to expose the nature and process of guilt, (self-) punishment, youth, conventions, repressed emotions, social and moral malaise in his society.

Gus Van Aschenba... uh, I mean Gus Van Sant's fascination with teen boys is taken to the hilt in "Paranoid Park", as he follows his unfathomable Tadzio-Raskolnikov: the introspective, sexually ambiguous and emotionally muted skateboarder named Alex, played by Gabe Nevins, whose blank Botticelli face and blasé demeanor hide his character's soul-searching turmoil. The swooning, voyeuristic camera follows Alex so closely and so insistently that it seems it's trying to penetrate and discover, under those expressionless features and monotone voice, the complex feelings that Alex is struggling to understand and keep under control, especially after tragedy strikes when he kills a security guard in a terrible railway accident.

The "thriller" plot is cleverly built, but of lesser importance; it's Alex's existential/moral crisis and GVS's concern with "America's misfit kids" that really matter in "Paranoid Park". The serpentine camera dances around the skateboarders in slow motion, à la Wong Kar-Wai, observing their beautiful air arabesques and their gravity-challenging leaps that seem to reach for cleaner oxygen, above ground-stuck conformity and ordinariness. The adrenaline-addicted skateboarders of Paranoid Park live in a sort of adolescent purgatory, where time also seems to loop; "growing-up" (which includes the possibility of going to war) is postponed, and it's no wonder we see some "over-aged" teens there, like the older guy who takes Alex to the ill-fated freight train ride.

But "Paranoid Park" is more than a sympathetic portrait of a certain American youth (the kind that we don't often see in American movies). It's also a free-spirited aesthetic exploration, visually (contrasting film textures; focus/out-of-focus shots; marked impressionistic style; the trademark but still hypnotizing slow-motion shots of cameraman's Christopher Doyle); rhythmically (witty editing, and we can thank all our gods it's only 85 minutes long), and aurally (GVS uses a VERY eclectic soundtrack -- classical music, folk, rock, hip hop, French concrete music and a lot of Nino Rota -- like a teen zapping his iPod). I was especially puzzled at GVS's extensive use of Rota's score for Fellini's "Juliet of the Spirits". At first, sight and sound didn't seem to match at all; but then it's true that both Alex and Giulietta are closed-in, dissatisfied, emotionally repressed misfits trying to cope with their loneliness and malaise by learning to confront and accept their personal ghosts -- though, by the end of their journey, we may fear for their mental sanity.

Another fascinating aspect of "Paranoid Park" is that GVS shows mature fair-play about his traumatic failure with the "Psycho" remake (also photographed by Doyle). Most obviously with two scenes that directly revisit "Psycho": the car-driving scene in rainy weather with non-stop music on the soundtrack -- a sign of the upcoming ominous events; and the magnificent shower scene, this time in extreme close- up and extreme slow-motion, with running water flowing through Alex's long hair forming a translucent, medusa-like image of mesmerizing beauty, electrified by a crescendo effect of (apparently) rattling waterdrop sounds mixed with loud bird chirps (remember bird sounds also inspired the legendary Bernard Herrmann's staccato shower murder theme in "Psycho", as Norman Bates was a bird taxidermist). There's even the same shot of Alex slowly gliding down against the wall in the shower, as Marion Crane in Hitchcock's classic.

Both in "Psycho" and in "Paranoid Park", the shower scenes are a body/soul-cleansing ritual, the climax of each film and a turning point for the protagonists: for Marion Crane it's unexpected death (punishment); for Alex it's the decision to keep silent about his crime (self-punishment). As in "Psycho", there is the observation of guilt underneath "innocent" appearance (Alex, Marion Crane and Norman Bates look perfectly innocent), and repressed sexuality (both Alex and Norman are sexually numb though aware they're attractive to women). And as in "Psycho", there's the unfailing intuition of a detective, here played by Daniel Liu, who looks like an Asian Martin Balsam, and whose eyes are so different one from the other -- one is lidless, accusatory, fixed; the other is heavy-lidded, world-weary, understanding --that when he stares at Alex he seems to figure out both sides of the boy.

The main weakness in the film is GVS's portrayal of females. It's obvious Alex couldn't care less about his hysterical cheer-leading girlfriend determined to get rid of her virginity, but did she have to be portrayed as an insufferable bore? And did Lauren McKinney, who plays the girl secretly in love with Alex, have to be so unflatteringly photographed? (compare her cruel close-ups with the slow-motion parade of gorgeous skateboarding ephebes at the school). And need I say Alex's mother (as in "Psycho") is only seen out of focus, far in the distance or from behind? (this time around we DO get to see the face and body of a father in a GVS film -- and, man, it's a scary vision).

Even if "Paranoid Park" isn't your cup of tea, one has to admit GVS is a rarity among established contemporary American filmmakers: he has, through the years, been brave enough to stick to his thematic obsessions (young male beauty, the loneliness of non-conformism, the failure of the American dream and the traditional family, the complexity that lies under the apparent numbness and superficiality of American teens), and put them in films that -- while certainly not for all tastes -- get more fascinating as they get more personal and self-revelatory by refusing to be "big".

One of my biggest fears (or phobias) has always been getting caught for something I didn't do. Then there might be 'wrong time, wrong place.' Something not really bad suddenly snowballs. You use a swear word and your dad starts shouting and he crashes the car and there's a big pile up and it's all your fault. Or a kind word gets taken the wrong way and suddenly everyone in the bar is throwing punches. Basically good guys don't always go to heaven, that's my worry.

Paranoid Park isn't a real park. Or rather it's a real skateboard park but the name is just made up by the kids there. It's the place where all the top skaters go. Alex is a good kid from the nice side of town. He skates a lot but doesn't know if he's really ready for Paranoid Park. That place is pretty intense. Alex borrows his mother's car but parks it on the opposite side of the river if he goes there. So it won't get damaged.

A policeman at the school is asking questions. A security guard has been found dead near the rail tracks. Maybe murder. The tracks run close to Paranoid Park. Did anyone see anything? There are so many remarkable things about this unusual movie. Let's starts with the acting and characterisation. Here Director Gus Van Sant gives us characters that actors of many years' experience would be proud of. The kids in the movie don't have that - in fact most of them were recruited through MySpace. What we get though is a sense of their interior lives.

All the kids - Alex, his girlfriend Jennifer, most of their friends, come from a world where being a teenager is the reality. That means your hobbies and interests are the day-to-day world, goals for the future figure somewhere, and adults are pretty peripheral. Adults exist and perform certain functions but are not that interesting. The adults in the film (like those in Rebel Without a Cause) are fairly one-dimensional. But unlike most teen-pics, the children here do not seem angry, overly rebellious, or addicted to sex and drugs and rock and roll. Nor are they stupid. They are convincingly normal teenagers, very real. They could be your children.

The 'world' of skateboarding or rather Alex's mental narrative - is skilfully woven from the start. Not by boring the pants off us with long displays of skate board skill, but rather by associational editing, soundscapes and inventive use of cameras and formats. We see and feel how this hobby, through the skaters' eyes, produces a high akin to drugs or music. By making Alex's perspective so real for us, his sparse lines throw us back on what he is thinking. We are closer to him than the adults in his world. More like a sibling. More like someone who knows and believes you when you are so honest and frank, and also stands next to you when you have your fingers crossed behind your back . . .

Our soundscapes are made up of gentle, electronic, ambient sounds. A dreamy woman's voice whispers something in French. Cinematography is by Christopher Doyle (In the Mood for Love). The sun through blades of grass near the shore and we skip between Super 8 and 35mm, hand-held cameras and stable frames. The ethereal and unreal becomes the bedrock of our world. Just as the basis of puberty is change. Adults can be sidelined in a way that just stops short of being contrived. When Alex is talking to his mother or father, they stay out of focus or out of frame for quite a long time into the conversation.

When the mystery is revealed it happens with operatic intensity, yet our emotion is held back until Alex can deal with it in his own way. The way the film evokes a moist eye from probably everyone in the theatre and suddenly stops will upset those wanting a more conventional structure. But it will still manage to satisfy far more people than might otherwise venture into such an art-based film.

As one of the characters says to Alex, "No-one's ever really ready for Paranoid Park."

Alex, a teenage skateboarder, accidentally kills a security guard in the vicinity of Paranoid Park, a skate grounds on the outskirts of Portland. Rather than report the incident to the police, Alex decides to say nothing.

This thin plot is stretched for an hour and seventeen minutes, as Gus Van Sant's camera following his amateur actors over the course of a couple of days. Many viewers will be left bored, and find the story thin and undramatic, but I enjoyed it.

Gus Van Sant's intentions, I think, are to treat skateboarding as a form of escapism. Like drugs, alcohol or even film, skateboarding is Alex's way of escaping his dysfunctional family and depressing life. The boys at Paranoid Park are his kindred spirits. He feels comfortable around them. They all understand his pain. As such, Van Sant tries to portray skateboarding as a dreamy, slow, sort of ethereal trance. He wants us to know that skateboarding is like being lost in drugs, alcohol or even a good piece of literature. This is how Alex escapes the world.

Van Sant's second point is that all the problems in the film are simply due to a lack of communication. The plot itself is merely a metaphor for this theme. Alex feels troubled and trapped simply because he doesn't talk about the crime he committed. Likewise, he's forced into having sex with his girlfriend because he lets her do all the talking and he has problems with his parents because he never opens up to them. His parents themselves have marital problems because they fail to meaningfully communicate. Throughout the film, character's constantly misunderstand one another, or simply lie to avoid having to talk about something uncomfortable. Not only do they fail to communicate, but they fail to properly articulate their feelings and pain.

Alex then meets Macy, that compassionate female character who seems to pop up in all of Van Sant's "death films". Right away, she senses that there is something wrong with him. She sees the pain in Alex and recommends that he write his troubles down to get his problems off his chest. Alex does this (communicates to the audience) and the film ends.

The film has several flaws. Firstly, the way Gus Van Sant portrays skateboarding (a drug like daze) doesn't work. It just feels cheap. Secondly, his idea of Alex's confessional letter being the film fabric itself, feels half thought out. Alex writes his letter bit by bit, and the film takes this fractured approach. "Elephant" was structured in a similar way, but felt more confident. Thirdly, the story is too thin. The film is only an hour and seventeen minutes long, and yet at least ten minutes of the film feels like pointless padding.

Still, there's a lot of strong stuff here. Like "Gerry", "Last Days" and "Elephant", Van Sant uses amateur actors, which lends the film an interesting edge. Also his cinematography (by long time Wong Kar Wai cinematographer Chris Doyle) is always interesting.

Despite it's failures, "Paranoid Park" is a great little morality tale. Gus Van Sant seems to have tapped into the whole teenage-angst thing. His characters are all lost, trapped in an uncaring, unforgiving modern world, their parents distant and literally out of focus. They have nobody to turn to. Nobody to talk to. Nobody to console them.

And like Paul Newman says at the end of "Cool Hand Luke", all these problems are simply due to man's failure to meaningfully communicate. Our failure to properly empathise and our inability to ever know what's going on in another person's head. We're all trapped in our own little boxes, with our own little problems, and rather than reach out and share our pain, we bottle it up, thinking we're all alone. Gus Van Sant wants us to know that by sharing out problems and by helping one another, we'd have a lot less to worry and a lot less to be guilty of.

7.9/10 - A heavily flawed but well meaning film, made by an honest artist.

first off, i'm amazed to see that this film has got a rating of 7 on this site. at first i thought it might be industry people logging in to IMDb and jacking up the rating. but after looking on rotten tomatoes and seeing that this film has something like a 76% approval rating, it seems that maybe folks have just been duped again into mistaking pretentious crap for profundity. i mean, this film is simply awful. the acting is simply terrible, but the rest of the film is worse. at least the acting provides some (unintentional) laughs.

the plot involves a teenage skateboarding boy who is being questioned along with his friends for a murder that happened by a park where they skate. and that's about it. the rest of the film consists of the aforementioned terrible acting, terrible dialog, slow motion shots of people walking, of people's faces, of people skating, often set to music that does not fit the scene. perhaps that was done to be "cool" or experimental or hip. or perhaps it was done in hopes that it would fool people into thinking that it is somehow profound, but it does not work. nothing in this film works. it's pretentious garbage. i can't not recommend it enough.

Gus Van Sant does it again, although it took me a while to get into the film. But the combining of some classical ditties en peculiar shots and close-ups and the (crime) story, including a gruesome horror scene filmed from above, reminded me of good old Hitchcock, more specifically 'Psycho' (1960)... an actual shower scene can be no coincidence then, right? Well, we all knew how big a fan Van Sant was of that film.

Furthermore, there's an extraordinary and fun choice of songs ('I can help' by Billy Swan, for instance), a series of 'hallway'-scenes reminiscent of Van Sant's earlier 'Elephant' (2003) and a fine build-up through an ingenious play with time and that notebook that keeps popping up everywhere.

Unfortunately, I wasn't very much convinced by the acting, Gabe Nevins would seem more in place as a poster-boy for some big jeans brand or something. It was mostly the talent of Van Sant which I enjoyed here.

A solid 7 out of 10.

I went to see this film with high expectations to the "Muestra International De Cine", in part because of Elephant (2003) that is my personal favourite of Gus Van Sant.

The film is similar to Elephant in the part that show to us the "real" life of an adolescent.

Paranoid Park follows the life of Alex, a young boy who loves skateboarding, when his life change because of a murderer.

But this film is not only about a murder and those kind of stuff, is about real life; show to us a world where adults don't know nothing about their own child's and for me that is very real.

In the case of the main character, Alex, his parents are going to divorce and he spend his life with his friend Jared and his girl Jennifer. It looks that Alex have a good communication with his mom but when he need that communication, there's a phrase that resume all: is like "write the letter to a person who you can trust, not to your parents of your teachers, write it to me". A phrase like that is said to Alex by another friend and for me that resume the problem of communication of the film.

Another is when Alex is in the murder scene and he nows that his life is going to change and the unique person who is thinking about is his young brother.

So the film is full of critic to the society and is very beautiful filmed and also the storytelling is great. The act is just natural and very real, just like in Elephant and another detail that i love is that we almost can't see the adults in the film, i mean the parents of Alex are like out of focus in the unique scene where they appear.

As a conclusion: This film is different and unique so is highly recommendable and comparing to the other work of Gus Van Sant, for me this is in my 3 favourites with Elephant and Drugstore Cowboy.

PS: another detail that i love is when Alex' brother tell to Alex a scene from "Napoleon Dynamite", is like the magic of a child's innocence.

Any mention of a Gus Van Sant film is nearly always accompanied by comments of being about disaffected or alienated male youth. While this is invariably both true and unavoidable, such superficial descriptions don't really do Paranoid Park justice. Van Sant's latest film is a profoundly intimate, moving and insightful meditation on the inner world of a youth in crisis.

Alex is sixteen and, aside from navigating the usual hurdles of adolescence, school, girls and life in general, his parents have recently undergone a messy separation. His escape is to hang out with his buddy Jared, and together they discover Portland's tough Eastside Skate Park. Known to the locals as Paranoid Park, it was built by the skaters themselves, and is a magnet for all kinds of dropouts.

Alex is a fairly normal kid but everything changes one evening when he goes to Paranoid Park alone and is involved in the death of a security guard. He keeps this toxic secret to himself, but gradually reveals all in his diary.

Of Van Sant's films, Paranoid Park is aesthetically most similar to Elephant. It defies a linear narrative, circling around the central facts which reflect Alex's state of shock and inability to come to terms with what has happened.

Other stylistic devices convey Alex's fractured state of mind, such as the use of a varied range of eclectic music. Similarly effective is the use of slow motion, creating a dreamy ambiance that complements the music at times, or contrasts at others, the music.

The film opens to the sounds of an ambient French track that matches the imagery of skaters floating through space, defying gravity. In fact, Paranoid Park is a French production and while the story and participants are clearly American, the film really has qualities reminiscent of French cinema. Van Sant seems to be revered in France more so that in his own country. His work has stark similarities to my favourite type of French cinema.

The depiction of grownups from a teenage perspective is fascinating. When in frame, they either have their backs to us, or cinematographer Chris Doyle's use of long lenses to strictly control focus means we mostly see them as a blur. They are not absent, but don't figure prominently in Alex's world. This is also subtly accentuated in conversations. "It's not like she cares", moans Alex about his mother when questioned about his movements.

We do, however, clearly see Detective Richard Liu. His strong presence shakes Alex out of his dreamy inner world and gives us a more grounded reference point within the story. His quiet intensity as he faces off with Alex at a crucial moment is as emotionally powerful as anything I have ever experienced on screen. This is when the true impact of Alex's ordeal, as well as Van Sant's genuine empathy for his characters is fully revealed.

In Paranoid Park, youth are disconnected from adults, but also parents are unable to engage with their children. Alex is in his own world that seems impenetrable to his parents, and they seem to struggle with words he can relate to. When Alex's father talks about inevitable divorce, his words have little interest to Alex.

Cast with mostly non-professionals, much has been made of Van Sant's casting call via MySpace, though apparently none of the main actors were found in this way. Van Sant has used improvisation with the actors, resulting in dialogue full of authenticity, light-years from the slick depictions of youth in contemporary cinema. His characters, both adults and youths, sometimes struggle with their words. The performances were terrific.

In fact, I find it hard to fault the film in any way. The cinematography is stunningly natural, the music is entrancing and the story is compelling. Technically, the most impressive aspect is careful construction of the story through editing (by Van Sant himself).

Starting with Gerry, this film caps off four consecutive films Van Sant has made in a minimalist style he is making his own. All four of them are concerned with youth and death. Life, death and what occurs between, these are all compacted within the framework of a Van Sant film. The films are not about death, but death is an event that provokes other dramatic elements. For me, Paranoid Park is the most touching of all his films, at least as good as Elephant and as good as anything I've seen in the last year.