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Paranoid Park movie review screener!

by Kris   ⋅   January 17, 2008   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

Poor timing dealt from inopportune situations, that’s Paranoid Park’s premise. Highschooler/skateboarder (not necessarily in that order) Alex (sweet-faced, eternally Zoo York clad newcomer Gabe Nevins) went out to “see the freaks skate” at Paranoid Park (oh, you know it’s Burnside) one night in order to drown his own almost all-too-aloof adolescent angst (parents’ divorce, his own dead-end relationship, his little brother reciting Napoleon Dynamite verbatim — just kidding about the latter because he adores his brother), but winds up witnessing the grisly death of a rent-a-cop instead.

As always, director Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Elephant, Gerry, Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting) delivers delicate drama crafted with contemporary creative cinematography. He is the suitor of subtle, the master of realism; his realm reliant on slideshow dreamscape sedatives ripe with memories, complete with their own unique eccentric soundtrack (ambient whizzes, Johnny Cash-ish and Olive Oyl-like ditties, the prepubescent-sounding drone of Elliot Smith recycled from an earlier Van Sant film). Even if they aren’t your memories, they have a familiar home-movie feel. Even though his actors aren’t formally trained (most were recruited on myspace), their stories seem real.

Two constants and human necessities, light and water, play an important role in Paranoid Park; the latter even surfacing in Alex’s classes in buoyant force lectures and pond water microscope examinations. Sure it’s the Pacific Northwest (Oregon), but water drilled at every pinnacle point cannot be mere coincidence. Often a symbol of purity and cleansing, the abundant liquid also arises during scenes of turmoil and distress. Rain, off-camera faucet tap, hot tubs, puddle water dripping from Alex’s soles, maybe the way the curve of the waterfront bench resembles a wave or a skate ramp schematic, all relate to the main character’s emotions. The Super 8 skateboard videos/visions, slowed to a lull accompanied by french-speech atmospheric musak, imbue a promotion of soothing tides and waves. Even the squeals of bedsprings when Alex nonchalantly deflowers his girlfriend (Taylor Momsen from CW’s Gossip Girl) sound more like a moored boat rocking, perhaps slight to make waves.

Light and shadow chalk up striking contrasts, depending on where Alex is physically, translating to where he is emotionally. One particularly intriguing sequence summons Alex to the school office in a snail’s pace gait in a brightly lit hallway, glancing innocently and curiously around him. After he is politely interrogated by a police detective in the office concerning the night he was at Paranoid Park, he lurches half-hunched into a hallway that is now completely dark, completely in shadow (pic above). He can’t seem to stop looking over his shoulder, paranoid.

One thing I learned in high school is that skateboarders and popo don’t mix. So Alex definitely had a reason to be paranoid, whether or not he was intimately involved in the major crime. The film strings you along there, dangling clues rather flippantly, threading a thin line of tension throughout. Even though it houses the structure of a conventional murder mystery, Paranoid Park doesn’t play like a blasé suspense thriller. Paranoid Park is much more about how a teenager seeks anonymity, hoping to join the numbness of the crowd, and ends up dealing with mature issues alone.

To some, Paranoid Park may be a lot of style over story, very short on dialogue, but that is why I believe it’s so brilliant. Possibly I’m biased because I’ve always had a thing for skater boys, particularly Chris’ impressive and ballsy stunts (usually involving extremely steep cliffs). Maybe I’m partial to Gus Van Sant films, which is why I diligently scrape his Psycho remake off my cerebrum (get out!) like it never happened. Or maybe I just like solid, artsy storytellers.

• Paranoid Park’s US limited release: March 7, 2008
• San Francisco Independent Film Festival screening: February 17, 2008

About the Author

Kris Kobayashi-Nelson says these directors/screenwriters rarely disappoint: Peter Greenaway, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Gus Van Sant. Gregg Araki. Kris claims that Jake Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy, Desmond Harrington and Casey Affleck are much more than pretty faces.