Paranoid Park

Starring: Gabe Nevins, Daniel Liu, Jake Miller, Taylor Momsen, Lauren McKinney

Directed by: Gus Van Sant

RS: 3.5of 4 Stars Average User Rating: 3.5of 4 Stars

2008 IFC First Take Drama

In a multiplex front-loaded with cheap jolts (Vantage Point) and cheaper jokes (how psyched are you to see College Road Trip?), filmmaker Gus Van Sant gives us a haunting tone poem laced with violent death. The setting is Portland, Oregon, where Van Sant lives and where Paranoid Park attracts the city's riskier skateboarders. Enter Alex, a teen boarder played with bruised innocence, and a face with dew still on it, by Gabe Nevins. At the park, Alex skates in a hypnotic, vaguely homoerotic haze over issues such as his parents' impending divorce and a virgin girlfriend (Taylor Momsen) he can barely rouse himself to screw.

One night, while riding a freight train near the park, Alex inadvertently causes the death of a security guard, whose body is cut in half on the tracks. A detective (a terrific Dan Liu) interviews Alex at school, but the circumstances of the death — at the core of Blake Nelson's novel — mean less to Van Sant than the effect on Alex, who can't find anyone to talk to about the tragedy. Macy (Lauren McKinney), a sympathetic girl at school, tells him that a journal is the best place for secrets, and snippets from it are as close as we get to Alex's thinking.

Van Sant has always run from the literal. Good Will Hunting is the director's biggest commercial success, but his heart and his art have always drawn him to more experimental projects on youthful alienation, including My Own Private Idaho, Gerry, Elephant and Last Days. In Paranoid Park, Alex's face becomes the director's road map. The film's sound design, sampling Beethoven and Nino Rota, among others, links up with visual miracles performed by Rain Kathy Li and Wong Kar-Wai's noted cinematographer, Christopher Doyle (In the Mood for Love), to take us inside Alex's head. The result, a defiant slap at slick Hollywood formula, is mesmerizing.

>>Watch Peter Travers' video review of Paranoid Park.

>>Watch every episode of our weekly Peter Travers video podcast by subscribing via iTunes here (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Friday, a new episode featuring clips from the week's newest movies will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

PETER TRAVERS

(Posted: Mar 20, 2008)

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Paranoid Park

Review 1 of 2

1of 4 Stars

What a huge waste of time? Terrible acting, boring script, no story movement, no direction...Paranoid Park provides nothing of value whatsoever. But I guess thats hip, and indy, so some idiot at Rolling Stone will trick himself into giving it a good revue. Honestly, there is nothing to like about this movie. This is by far the worst movie I have seen this year, and I do watch a lot of movies.

Jun 21, 2008 12:22:17

Review 2 of 2

2of 4 Stars

Though Gabe Nevins has the best cinematic eyes since Robert Mitchum, there is little beyond that to recommend this film. Unlike "Elephant" his previous attempt to explore the teen mind under extreme circumstances, Gus Van Sant is reduced to imitating French 1960's cinema. Truffaut's "400 Blows" did this kind of angst better.

That being said, Alex (Nevins)is a wonderful study of a 21st century James Dean. Lost between the world of the truly disenfranchised (those who inhabit "Paranoid Park") and the truly privileged (his suburban friends), Alex seems unable to locate his place. I wish VanSant had spent more time with Alex's dilemma...but with a grisly death central to his story,he ends up with a generic story. After all, Alex's response could easily be that of a middle-class housewife or a high-profile government figure. Ultimately, VanSant reveals nothing special about a fascinating group: the post-9/11 teenager.

May 3, 2008 17:39:56

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