Taking just 18 days to shoot and with a small budget “Paranoid Park” sees Gus Van Sant return once again to his Indy roots. Stylistically resembling his 2003 film “Elephant”, Paranoid Park is a continuation of his experiment with narrative form. And like “Elephant” and “Last Days”, Paranoid Park deals with the emotional confusion of youth.
Adapted from Blake Nelson's novel of the same name, the film follows Alex, a young Skater, as he deals with the consequences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We observe him journaling his thoughts about what happened one fateful night at Paranoid Park.
Paranoid Park is an intimidating skateboard park in Portland. It is known to be dangerous and exciting, attracting disaffected youth. It represents not only skater culture but also a place where rebellious kids feel they belong.
Gabe Nevins plays Alex. He is soulful and frustratingly apathetic. He is stuck in a moment with no ability to move forward. This sense of entrapment is cleverly heightened through Van Sant manipulation of time progression in the film. But what I find really engaging about Van Sant's recent work is his use of non-actors. For this film he advertised on Myspace for kids to audition. The result is raw and provocative.
He elicits performances devoid of excessive artifice. Therefore the audience never feels overly manipulated, just emotionally engaged.
Gus van Sant is such a visual storyteller, and here his skills are well complimented by the enormous talents of Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle.
Together they have created a lyrical piece of cinema with extensive use of long unbroken shots, slow motion and the clever blending of super 8 with 35mm.
The fluidity of the film and the haunting sound scape is incredibly effective, wonderfully giving the audience a sense of Alex's inner turmoil.
More a murder mystery than a skateboarding film, Gus Van Sant, with his distinct voice, has made a film that is gentle, current and brave. However, if it is “Good Will Hunting” you are after you will be disappointed. 4 stars. Paranoid Park is in limited release from March 6.
