Review: Paranoid Park (2008) *** 1/2
Paranoid Park is perhaps the most rewarding expression yet of the elusive European arthouse sensibility Gus Van Sant has been exploring in his most recent films. He’s still less interested in a strong narrative than he is in moods and in the internal lives of characters who don’t appear to have any, but he’s achieved a finer balance here than he did with either Gerry or Elephant. The end result, if not necessarily better, is more satisfying.
Gerry was a more purely experimental work. There isn’t much of a story to follow and, coyly, we’re not even told what it is the two Gerry’s begin the film looking for. It’s fascinating but rough going for those who are more interested in what happens to the characters on screen than in examining their own reactions to a movie. Elephant, meanwhile, had a more driven narrative arc, but it was weighed down by a loaded hot-button issue that tended to magnify some of the more heavy-handed moments in the film.
With Paranoid Park, Van Sant returns to the high school milieu of Elephant and he’s cast another group of amateurs, but it’s not fair to assume he’s simply reworking the same territory. The two films are kindred spirits, but Paranoid Park is an extension of and a more penetrating look at its subject. It goes beneath the surface to get inside the mind of its protagonist. It’s about more than teenagers in America, it’s about the world through a teenager’s eyes. Also, removed of the controversial baggage of the previous film, it is at once more intimate and more universal.
The story is told by young Alex who wouldn’t be out of place in an Antonioni film. Instead of a materially wealthy but spiritually vacant European, he’s a disaffected, almost somnambulant suburban American teen. Indifferent on the surface, he’s troubled by something and he’s trying to express himself by writing in a journal.
One morning at school, Alex is called into the principal’s office where he’s questioned by a police detective, interestingly one of the few adult characters whose face is clearly shown. Detective Lu is investigating the death of a railroad security guard that has been linked to the nearby skate park. Alex answers the questions, but denies being at the park on the night of the murder. Satisfied with Alex’s responses, Lu sends him back to class.
What follows is a looping narrative that starts and stops and backtracks and repeats just like a story told by an inarticulate teenager. As he tentatively circles around the real issue, Alex fills in some of the details of his life. He’s got a little brother. His parents are separated and divorcing. He’s got a girlfriend, but he doesn’t seem to know what to do with her and he’d rather be watching the skaters at Paranoid Park. The extended slow motion sequences of the other skaters jumping, gliding through the air and performing tricks seem to be the only moments when the world comes alive for him.
Continuing the story in an almost offhand way, Alex gets closer and closer to the events of the night of the murder and it quickly becomes clear that he lied to the detective about a lot of small details. Eventually the true nature of his involvement is revealed and the story he’s telling becomes his way of grappling with what happened. On the surface, he is almost a blank, but it’s clear his story is weighing him down. He simply doesn’t have the emotional intelligence with which to cope nor the support mechanisms to which he can turn for help. Left to his own devices, he seems on the verge of a potentially permanent downhill slide.
On the technical side, Paranoid Park is beautifully photographed by Rain Kathy Li and the great Christopher Doyle. Portland comes to life with a rainy day Fall drama that seems unique to the American northwest. The frequent slow motion may seem like artsy pretension, but it goes a long way toward establishing a mood and providing emphasis.
The cast isn’t blessed with the range of professionals and some are better than others, but they capture a natural introversion and an awkward authenticity lacking in typical Hollywood teens. At times it feels like Van Sant is following real kids around and capturing them documentary style.
The experimental sound design by Felix Andrew and Leslie Shatz uses repeating ambient sound effects that don’t always match up with what’s happening on screen. It’s a strange effect, almost subliminal at first, and it seems to suggest Alex’s mind is moving in different directions from the events around him and he’s having a hard time focusing.
Most curious of all is the soundtrack which has been taken from a range of unrelated sources. There are a couple of moody Elliot Smith songs that seem an obvious choice for the subject matter, but then there are snatches of classical including the fourth movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and also a generous helping of Nino Rota, namely from the scores for Federico Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits and Amarcord. The Beethoven is eerie and dramatic and the Rota is almost bouncy and whimsical. Both are seemingly at odds with the drama onscreen, but somehow they work and add to the sense of mystery.
I won’t pretend that Paranoid Park is an easy film to sit down and watch or that I’ve figured out all its ins and outs. It’s a vague, elusive and repetitive film, but it’s also moody, meditative and fascinating if you let it under your skin. It’s not a film for all tastes, but I recommend it especially to fans of Van Sant’s more recent work.
Paranoid Park. USA 2007 (released 2008). Written and directed by Gus Van Sant. Cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Rain Kathy Li. Starring Gabe Nevins, Taylor Momsen, Jake Miller, Dan Liu and Lauren McKinney. 1 hour 24 minutes. MPAA rated R for some disturbing images, language and sexual content. 3.5 stars (out of 5)
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Gosh, I wish I wasn’t headed out right now just so I could write a little more but I will say that it’s definitely my favorite of van Sant’s films. Like I said in another thread, it felt a bit like van Sant’s Blow-Up, which makes a lot of sense since his films have recently had that Antonioniesque texture to them.
I liked the Beethoven here as well, and I’m glad you write of the generous helping of Nino Rota scores for Fellini (possibly my two favorite scores for Fellini’s films).
As much as I find him to be an arrogant ass in just about every interview I’ve read, Christopher Doyle knows how to light a scene. Somehow Shyamalan even made Doyle’s cinematography seem strangely off the mark in Lady in the Water.
Again, though, definitely my favorite van Sant film in a long time. It feels like the culmination of his canon since Finding Forrester. Maybe I liked it more largely because it was, as you say, simply more satisfying than his recent output, though I enjoyed the expressionism here with all of the skateboarding a great deal in general.
Superb review here!
For me, ELEPHANT remains Van Sant’s masterpiece.
I love the Antonioni comparison…
I really should go see this films again. I saw it during the festival, and I was very, very tired. Maybe that explains why I liked it, but was left somewhat underwhelmed. All the reviews – including yours – make me feel like I might have missed something.
I did love that scene with the little brother re-enacting or actually retelling a whole scene from Napoleon Dynamite. I don’t even know why, but that moment stayed with me, while the rest of the movie is kind of a blur.
Excellent review, Craig. I was looking forward to it. Have to admit I was hoping you’d shed a little more light on the local scene, though, as you’re familiar with them parts, I think. Not that it really matters for the purposes of the movie, I’m just curious.
“The frequent slow motion may seem like artsy pretension, but it goes a long way toward establishing a mood and providing emphasis.”
You know that along with the ambient sound effects, this was what prevented me from really being taken by PP. In hindsight it was beautiful, as in Gerry, but at the time I it didn’t work for me. The shower scene was almost a dealbreaker.
You’re absolutely right about the lighting, Alexander.
Hedwig, the Napoleon Dynamite scene was fantastic. It completely interrupted the momentum but after about 30 seconds I was loving it. It was fresh and added to the symbolic chaos in Alex’s mind.
The farther I get from Gerry, the more I find I like it. I don’t think I’ll run out and see it again soon, but it was definitely something else.
Sam, I can see why you liked Elephant. I don’t want to say that PP was ‘better’ but the elements simply added up to a more satisfying whole for me. As Alexander said (and I tried to), it was a culmination of many of the threads Van Sant has been pulling for a few years.
Hedwig, film festivals are great…but they’re also a bitch. Tell you what, you watch PP again and I’ll watch Margot at the Wedding again.
Napoleon Dynamite. One thing I liked about that scene is that it was sort of a microcosm of how Alex was telling his own story. Not the subject, but just the way kids can’t tell a straight story to save their lives. It’s all stops and starts and backing up and starting over…just like PP.
Daniel. Portland is a different animal than where I grew up in Seattle….plus I was never a skater punk
Finally, a newish release in the US that I have seen!
I loved this film, I could totally indentify with the character “Alex.” I think I may have loved this film more than anyone else, and I don’t even mind. One of van Sant’s best if you ask me. Just behind “My Own Private Idaho.” I get shivers thinking about Paranoid Park. Shivers I tell you.
So when I write my review, which will be hard, it will be another glowing review. I would love to write about something I hate though. I don’t even know what I am talking about anymore, time for bed I say
Craig, it is the “school teacher” in me. LOL! And I must agree with Hedwig on that excellent correlation with Antonioni. That hasn’t been brought out by anyone else.
“Daniel. Portland is a different animal than where I grew up in Seattle….plus I was never a skater punk”
Should we better think of you as a teenage grunge era stoner? :-)
Daniel, I’ve lived in Portland for two years now and the subculture that Van Sant depicts here is as elusive to me as it is to you. These kids exist in the periphery of my everyday life but I pay little attention to them.
I liked the movie although the rough edges of the non-professional actors was a little jarring at times. But I also really liked that these were real kids, not Hollywood confections designed to look and sound like perfectly idealized teenagers. John Hughes doesn’t exist in Paranoid Park.
I do think this movie is more successful than Elephant or Gerry and I think overall, the tone of Van Sant’s storytelling is less oft-putting for me here than it was in the other two films. At first I thought the skateboarding footage was beautiful but gratuitous but as the movie progressed, it became clear to me that Van Sant was getting into Alex’s head and his frame of mind. Alex is fascinated by the skateboarders and so in turn is Doyle’s camera. It was an interesting touch.
I’ve worn my shair of flannel shirts growing up Sartre, but I never really listened to Nirvana when it was cool to listen to Nirvana.
Sounds like we had a similar response to PP Joel. It took me a little while to start to warm up to it. It’ll be interesting to see if you do too or if it’ll be the other way around.
Thanks for the insights, Joel – I’d forgotten you were up there. Sounds like PP is educational for even those who live right next door to it.
Flannel’s coming back, Craig. Maybe not next week, maybe not next year. But it will return…
Yeah, the curious thing about Paranoid Park is that it doesn’t wear Portland on its flannel sleeve. It could take place in any city really. I expected the movie to reference the city and subcultures here more directly and it doesn’t. It would be easy to exploit the city for its visual beauty and citizens (the motto “Keep Portland Weird” is worn as a badge of pride here) but Van Sant avoids that.
I think Van Sant is trying to tell a much bigger story than something so specific, so he keeps those references (and the influence of the adults) fairly limited to allow the characters to have a broader reach.
I applaud that choice.