In all honesty this movie would have to be one of the worst movies I've seen for a long time. A lot of slow motion with no real purpose or direction and so slow as to send even you to sleep even after 6 cups of coffee.
Nice atmosphere and cinematography. The characters were realistic and likeable. Wonderful soundtrack. If it had been as provokative as Good Will Hunting the grade would have been higher.
Décent. Des petits moment de brillance qui apparaissent au milieu du grand bof général. Je n'ai pas été particulièrement impressionné par la cinématographie, qui est souvent une force des films de Gus Van Sant. Un peu décevant, même si le film est porté aux nues par (certains) critiques.
Absolutely mesmerizing tale of a teenager caught in a downward spiral after being involved in the death of a security guard. Told in non-linear fashion, it keeps you guessing what the teen is feeling and how he's going to deal with what has happened. Gabe Nevins shines as Alex, and I for one hope he continues to pursue acting as a career - he is absolutely FANTASTIC - he and co-star Lauren McKinney both made PNR's 2008 Rising Stars list in July. Great performances all around, and an eclectic soundtrack that will get under your skin. This is Gus Van Zant's BEST FILM EVER - BAR NONE!
What could have been a standard tale of disaffected youth becomes in the hands of director Gus Van Sant an evocative portrait of crime and growing pains set against Portland skateboarding scene. Aided by camerawork from Wong Kar Wai DP Christopher Doyle, as well as an eclectic soundtrack that runs the gamut from Elliot Smith to Nino Rota, Van Sant employs a non-linear structure to convey the teenaged protagonist's struggle to come to terms with his role in the death of a security guard in the Northwest city's train tracks. What's truly impressive is that the framing device -- a letter the young man writes to himself -- never feels gimmicky, and that's because in recent years Van Sant has favored the power of his images over narrative thrust. The story-obsessed part of me wanted a more cathartic resolution, but even if the "Paranoid Park"'s closing moments lack the rest of the film's seductive pull, this is a haunting, entrancing work by a filmmaker at the peak of his powers.
Lame and very boring. Typical Indie crap that tries way too hard and falls flat on it's face. Besides all that stuff it seems actors are reading their lines throughout the movie.
Very good movie with a low-budget feel giving us an insight into the skate-culture and realistic dialogue. Plot is simple but works and is not important.
Once again, Gus Van Sant delivers a solid movie in a style that he?s continually honing. He continues to make obviously personal movies that don?t bow to the current norms. His ability to make the most of his fresh-faced young actors?or non-actors as the case may be?is a brave move that he somehow manages to pull off with ease. In an age where everyone with a video camera is urged to go out and make a movie, Van Sant must be seen as an icon.
Despite its low budget experimental qualities, this is probably the most accessible of his movies since Finding Forrester, although that?s not to say it?s anything like Finding Forrester, which was underwhelming at best. Paranoid Park is a more focused story, with a more audience-friendly approach than his last feature, Last Days, it?s more natural than the almost documentary style Elephant and it has a more engaging narrative than the nearly dialogue-free Gerry. Paranoid Park shows a director who is comfortable with his long developed style, and while it?s not a career best, it?s certainly a movie well worth seeing.
This is a Van Sant´s piece of art. This modest and poetic piece of art is so well directed that takes you inside the main charecter head (Alex). A film so imaginary and real at the same time that makes it breathtaking,
It's a good character study and a good story too, but during some scenes I was actually wondering what that was all about. Gus is certainly great at what he does, but this time, he could have done better.
I really enjoyed this..the movie is a bit weird but it never crosses the line and gets too out there..this movie is based on a novel by Blake Nelson, and it's about a young teenager that wants to skate in the illegal skateboarding hang-out Paranoid Park more than anything. One night when he goes there something bad happens and from that moment on he gets confused and is left with the feeling of guilt and fear..this film is not that long and it's realistic and not overdone at all, and you can't expect too much because it's very simple but that's also what makes this so good..it feels like this is made in a strange certain way that makes you get close to the main character, so that you can follow him and let him tell you his story..I can imagine that some people don't like the ending in this but I thought it was awesome..
To me, Van Sant's film delivered a message about apathy and striking indifference in modern American society. Everything from the casting of non-actors to a completely emotionless directorial approach indicate what I believe to be the intent of the film. Very well-made and outside the box.
Like his contemporary Larry Clark, Gus Van Sant is very good at capturing a certain slice of humanity, a certain generation or age-group or community, down to a tee. This is what he does in Paranoid Park, which is the story of a young skater from Portland who accidentally causes the death of a security guard at a train station and must deal with the moral consequences. The plot is really paper-thin because it doesn't go much beyond this single cause-and-effect, but what the film does is entrench the audience in the mind of Alex (played by Gabe Nevins, an amateur actor, like the rest of the cast). One thing I can say definitively is that Paranoid Park is extremely well shot. The cinematography work by Christopher Doyle (long-time collaborator with Kar Wai Wong, whose films always look amazing) is fabulous. Van Sant presents the film also in a variety of medium and plays around with the score and the background sound that it really does make one sit back and think when watching the film, in this way it's somewhat Brechtian but still able to be appreciated at face value because of the interesting main character and story. The film seems to be mainly be about communication, or lack thereof. But therein lies the only significant issue with the film, which is that Van Sant didn't fully communicate through the film what he obviously intended to, or at least not as concisely as he could of. There are skateboarding sequences shot in a fuzzy tone sprinkled throughout the film, sort of like Alex's daydream. It is clear that these are intended to represent the escapism of skateboarding, how it acts almost like a drug for Alex and his friends. And it makes us wonder whether the skateboarding is only there for him to have something there in his life, since he seems so detached from everything else. So, these sequences eventually get across what they mean to but they also become redundant and by the 3rd or 4th one one wonders whether they needed to be there at all. Like his film Elephant, Paranoid Park beautifully captures a section of American youth-culture and tells a compelling character story while doing so. Because of this, the great look of the film, and its good soundtrack (I dug the inclusion of a couple Elliott Smith tunes a lot), it's worth checking out.
Pretentious indie shite. This got rave reviews from everyone, but I thought it was painfully boring and well...pretentious. Oooh...kids skateboarding in slow motion. Blow me.
Lame. It felt like a bunch of teens filmed it. It had no point. And it flashed around way too much. Plus the boy was talking almost the whole damn time.
Through immaculate use of picture, sound and time, the director adds another panel to his series of pictures about disaffected, disconnected youth. Youth and death meet again in Gus Van Sant?s Paranoid Park, a gorgeously stark, mesmerizingly elliptical story told in the same lyrical-prosaic style that has characterized his latest films.
Absolutely loved the mesmerising cinematography by Christopher Doyle coupled with the great soundtrack. Pretty impressed with the acting as well. It does feel a bit boring at times though and the ending kinda leaves you confused and unsatisfied. Sometimes I do like abrupt endings left for the viewers imagination but I'm not sure if it worked well here. It felt more like as if the film was incomplete.
Still worth a watch and I'd say Gus Van Sant really manages to capture the real deal here with disillusioned teenage kids living in modern day America.
I love Gus' early films, absolutely love them but his "experimental" 4 films after his Hollywood films are rather overrated, this no exception, would have worked much better as a slightly more linear movie which the kid trying to get away with the crime and I could have cut a good 20 minutes out, it would have worked as a good TV pilot or something, just not as a feature film and the ending just doesn't work, you assume he gets away with it but i think it needed some clarity.
Slight step down from the majesty of 'Elephant' as it tries to mix in a more mainstream 'who done it' plot. Some classic scenes are balanced by some patchy acting. Van Sant is still the master at capturing the otherworldly dream state of confusion in adolescence.
Gus Van Sant is now in production with his Bio pic MILK. and yes i was working close to that production since its based out here in SF. But none the less with avoiding ass kissing Sant - this picture is great! His best to date..
Paranoid Park was nominated for the Palme d Or at Cannes in 2007 his Elephant won in 2003 and Van Sant was awarded the festivals special 60th Anniversary Prize.
The latter places him in a very small group of filmmakers singled out for such recognition, iconic Indian cineaste Satyajit Ray among them. If Van Sants previous work is not proof enough that he is among Americas most original filmmakers, Paranoid Park will make it apparent. The adapted screenplay based on Blake Nelsons novel of the same name captures the peculiar patois of urban teenagers, and its narrative simplicity cleverly disguises a profound portrait of adolescent teen.
With fluid cinematography, an expert melding of Super8 and standard 35mm footage, and a sound mix worthy of Oscar consideration, the film is an illustration of Van Sants virtuosity, as well as a textbook example of cinemas potential to place us squarely in the emotional landscape of another human being.
Paranoid Park frequently breaks with the long tracking shots the director has favoured recently for a more intimate, mesmerising impressionism most effectively, in the gorgeous, lyrical slowmo of the skating scenes. The soundtrack designed by the experienced veteran Leslie Schatz is even more of a kick, a weird but affecting mix of electronica, Elliott Smith, Nino Rota and Beethoven (Schatz puts birdcalls over a shower scene and it works).
You only have to picture how differently Larry Clark would have approached the subject to appreciate Van Sants instinctive empathy for an alienated young man on the edge. Incidentally , or maybe not, its probably the directors most gay film since My Own Private Idaho.
It is also a movie about boyhood disillusionment. Even at the celebrated Paranoid Park, a sloping cement landscape appropriated from beneath a highway overpass, Alex is unable to skateboard. He tells people he isn't good enough, but actually Alex is too burdened to be cool.
While Van Sant suspends any moral judgment of his protagonist, there is no mistaking his indictment of the adults who are unable to communicate with kids, or to understand how profoundly they suffer.
A must see - look for it - i get the feeling it won't be on screens long.
MCT:July 20, 2008
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