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Paranoid Park (2007)

Director: Gus Van Sant

Time Out rating

Average user rating

4 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

After ‘Gerry’, ‘Elephant’ and ‘Last Days’, this is the fourth film from Gus Van Sant in which teenage boys or young men are forced to deal with unavoidable death, whether from a merciless sun, murderous fellow pupils or suicide after depression and drug abuse. Here, the end arrives from nowhere as a quiet, likeable skateboarding Portland teen, Alex (Gabe Nevins) accidentally kills a security guard while trespassing on the railway. Manslaughter apart, Alex’s life is normal: separating parents, first sex, hanging with friends, and the attraction of new people and places, such as the menacing downtown skate park from which the film takes its name. Unshakeable, piercing worry is another staple of teenage life, only Alex’s distress is exceptional: the police are sniffing around his school and the newspaper reminds him daily of the sight of a man cut in half by a train…

‘Paranoid Park’ is slighter and slightly less affecting than its predecessors, with which it shares an up-close intimacy with its main players and an invitation to read its characters through photography and sound design as much as through dialogue, which is fitful and sometimes masked by music. The photography – by Chris Doyle and Kathy Li – assumes even greater significance as the world beyond Alex is blurred, and the film’s framing rejects the intrusion of anyone else, not least adults, into his world. A build-up of secrecy and anxiety are well-served by Van Sant’s chopped-up narrative of the slow reveal, and again the director shows a keen eye for the rituals and worries of teenage life. It’s impossible, though, for him to better ‘Last Days’ for entering the head of a troubled soul.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 1948: December 19 2007-January 1 2008

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User reviews of this film

benjamin ross said...

Posted on Feb 27 2009 22:11 another goodie from van sant. i just watched 'elephant' yesterday and needed another van sant fix. whilst this isn't as good as 'elephant', it's still a damn good film. kept my interest throughout and i really felt for the main character.

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Godfrey Hamilton said...

Posted on Jan 14 2009 06:00 Dave wants you to know he watched the ENTIRE movie, and can prove it. Plus, he doesn't have actually to think too hard when writing the usual lazy "review". For the obsessive "plot-revealer" par excellence, you'd have to go a long way to find the equal of the New Yorker's smug, self-absorbed and irritating Anthony Lane, who is happy, for example, to reveal the content and intention of the final freeze frame of 'Under the Sand'. Is there no way of stopping these dreadful people, who have not yet produced a single movie themselves?

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jerome said...

Posted on Jan 21 2008 20:42 Since Time Out's reviews are otherwise useful to me, I suggest make a pledge to never give away too much of any film receiving more than one star.

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mistergourmet said...

Posted on Jan 04 2008 17:13 Why has this reviewer - in common with many others - given away the central plot element, which is revealed only slowly in the film? By doing so, he has completely punctured the suspense of the film. This contempt for the audience is becoming increasingly common. Film reviewers (especially this one) need reminding of their responsibilities towards the audience (and their readers)

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