Paranoid Park

Jye Sherwell

Gabe Nevins did a fantastic job in this film. I found the dialog extremely natural, convincing and really it all rang true with me. The story is good and Aussie DP Christopher Doyle did a superb job on the visual side. I loved the eclectic music too. Overall this is my favourite film from Van Sant plus one of my favourite films of all time.

TCPopcorn

Van Zant's finest film, IMHO - Gabe Nevins is a real find and could become a major star if he chooses to continue acting. Absolutely love this film - winner of five of my Poppy year-end awards last year including Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Juvenile Performance.

Phil Worfel

Wonderful! Van Sant at his arty best. Such an understanding of youth and a hell of an ear for dialogue.

Eric Rucker

If you are unconvinced, or you found it pretentious, read Daniel Kasman’s review and rewatch. Violet, directed by Bas Devos, seems to be an extension/translation of this film, which doesn’t take away from it in my mind, and gives measure to the depth of Paranoid Park. The Unloved, by Samantha Morton, is a visionary cousin. Created whole cloth by her but an independent confirmation of the truth of PP and Violet.

Wee Hunk

Van Sant is at heart an experimental filmmaker. As a result it can look like he's throwing things out there to see which things work. There was a fair amount of stuff I didn't think worked. The soundtrack, the forehead lighting, the aspect ratio. I could go on. I did want to point out that the scene where they had sex was well done in terms of the ambient noise and the psychological aspects.

VincentVendetta

This was the third time I watched Paranoid Park, and yet it felt like something I've never seen before. I remembered the camera shots, the story, but I had forgotten everything around it, the editing, the impressionist photography, the strange choice of songs for a skateboarding movie. But I guess this is what true nostalgia is about: you never understand what you've lost until it's gone forever.

msmichel

Van Zant's brief experimental phase (Gerry, Elephant, Last Days) seemed to come to an end with this dreamlike arty film concerning a murder tied to a young skater. Shot with precision and beauty by Christopher Doyle and Rain Kathy Li . Van Sant's adaptation of the Blake Nelson novel is short on linear plotting but tells an interesting tale none the less.

dionysus67

Could have been an insightful and melancholic portrait -as it clearly intended to be- of the teenage mind-set and subcultures, yet it lets itself down through unfortunate decisions on narrativity. Both the slow-motion shots, the grainy, as if of documentary footage, sequences plus the musical ironies fail to add to what the paucity of the teenagers aims to reveal. Some fine moments on moral empathy do not suffice.