moviereview - Paranoid Park

PARANOID PARK

	A teenager's moral compass goes askew after a late-night lark on a railway carriage ends in tragedy.	score 3+	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
			FIND A MOVIEREVIEW

Cast
Gabe Nevins, Taylor Momsen, lauren McKinney, Winfield Jackson, Daniel Liu

Director
Gus Van Sant

Screenwriter
Gus Van Sant

Country
USA

Rating / Running Time
M / 90 minutes

Australian Release
March 2008

Official Site

If you could take anything from Van Sant’s amoral thriller is an abstract lesson in Western indifference and lack of culpability. It rises to the surface through reference to the war in Iraq, and most gruesomely after the film’s big moment. Yet this is a gloves-on story immersed in the minutia of a self-repressed teenager’s life (an utterly compelling Gabe Nevins).

Rudderless Alex is drawn to the titular skateboarding park that separates men from boys. A notional friendship leads to criminal activity that ends in tragedy. Unable to process much less reconcile events or shape his response, Alex simply does nothing. For lack of experience and wisdom, he reduces manslaughter to a problem that can be ignored through skateboarding. But is simple youth reason enough to excuse murderous behaviour? A fence-sitting Van Sant leaves judicial choices to the viewer. He’s not calling the shots.

Based on Blake Nelson’s popular novel, Paranoid Park loops, ducks and weaves about the topic while building an impressive head of expressive steam. It’s a subtle approach that quietly expands the tone of Elephant with some success. Although a twang of the recognisable haunts his production, DOP’s Kathy Li and Christopher Doyle (Rabbit Proof Fence) bring unique visual energy to a style that oscillates between bewildering and bewitching.

A cast of newcomers (sourced in part from a cast-call on MySpace) lend substantial weight, mesmerising in their tangible, irritating, somewhat irrational ingenuousness. The familiar tone will distance some viewers and Van Sant’s refusal to judge Alex will alienate others. Those who see Paranoid Park as a timely exploration of failing innocence will find no fault.

// COLIN FRASER