Paranoid Park

Reviewer: Bryan Thornally
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Gus Van Sant's newest film, Paranoid Park, dives deep into modern teenage life with a stylized look beyond any of his earlier works. It most directly feels like an outgrowth from his 2003 film about a school shooting, Elephant, as they both take an unconventional look at the everyday life of American youth and its collision with brutal violence.

Much like Elephant, Paranoid Park uses non-linear storytelling and a meandering plot to flesh out its characters; to the film's benefit, our attention is focused primarily on just one character this time, an alienated teenager named Alex infatuated with skateboarding.

This film, based on a young adult novel by Blake Nelson, is without a doubt one of Van Sant's most challenging works. But those who can keep an open mind, and don't mind being a little confused and disoriented, will find much to like here. While Park is framed by a noir-ish plot, told appropriately in first person narration by Alex, most of the it's scenes work to create complex tones through often extravagant stylistic techniques. Most prominently are the many plot-less scenes of skateboarders in slow-motion moving gracefully through the air and around the camera. These moments help the audience to identify with Alex and his passion for skateboarding, as they feel like dreams floating through his head. Yet many other elements keep the audience at a distance from the characters.

The use of nearly all non-actors and their extremely understated performances could be the most alienating aspect of the film. The characters don't feel like they're acting, but that's not to say that their performances should be described as "natural" (in a movie-sense) either. A friend said it best when she described the very similar acting style in Elephant, "I didn't like it . . . they were talking like actual people."

Indeed, their words don't sound like movie dialogue; it isn't always cleaver or interesting, in fact, it's often inane and annoying. This was especially apparent when Alex's young brother quotes Napoleon Dynamite, and proceeds to explain the entire scene in that rambling way that young children do. It's strange how startlingly real that scene feels: it not only sounds unscripted, it even sounds un-directed. This seemingly irrelevant dialogue and their un-stylized delivery makes you start to listen to them differently than characters in the average narrative movie.

But while Paranoid Park at times feels almost like a documentary, at other moments it becomes an expressionist art-house film. This juggling of styles does make the film feel somewhat jarring, but it's worth the effort, worth taking a chance on; it's surprisingly beautiful.