Paranoid Park

The first impression that a movie makes is from its title. They say the first impression is often the last impression. And yet, in Gus van Sants impressive oeuvre, the one most stand-out quality is his abstract titles. Rooted deeply in the film, yet enigmatic in their significance to the plot. Paranoid Park follows in a similar vein.

Without giving away much of the story is the only way to detail Paranoid Park. Centered around an event in a young skaters life, Paranoid Park is representative of the young teenagers life and its vagaries. Van Sant elicits a simplistic performance from Gabe Nevins, the protagonist Alex. He delivers realistically an effective portrayal of teen angst and confusion, but given Van Sant's own prediliction of minimalistic film-making, that doesn't take much effort. What carries the story forward is the slow delivery of the crux. Unlike in Gerry, perhaps the most bold of his repertoire, Van Sant plays safe in that he has a central core around which the film follows, and he uses effectively the reverse sequencing in telling his story, so as to keep the viewer engaged, while slowly digressing into natural subplots.

Daniel Liu as the police detective and Jake Miller as Jared are the only supporting members who have much of a role. Both, and especially Liu deliver adequate performances.

Paranoid Park is a film that went to Cannes, Sundance and all the other major film festivals. It got nominated for three independent Spirit Awards, all even though it is in essence indulgent of a very intimate story. The credit for this goes entirely to Van Sant, not only for his mastery of the art of story telling but also for his clear understanding of the changing generation.

It has it's own sets of flaws. Unfortunately, with an eccentric genius like Van Sant, one can never tell if a percieved flaw was intentional or not. For instance, the unclear sexual dynamics displayed with Nevins girlfriend taking the leading role in their relationship could be percieved as the emasculation of the modern man in today's metrosexual world or simply Van Sant's (or rather the original book author Blake Nelson's) characterization. Similarly, the background score does seem a little over done for the scale of the film. And yet the ambiguity of intent charcteristic of all Van Sant's features makes it difficult to categorize these as flaws.

The one most important and effective message that one leaves with at the end of the movie is also the most subtly resonant throughout the film. The constant state of being removed that today's entire generation faces. Some say it is arrogance, others call it ignornace, but Van Sant represents it as a state of both fear and confusion and a lack of identification with the world they are surrounded with. And this indelible truth is delivered with a finesse that can only be acquired over time.

All in all, I would recommend this movie very strongly for all you Van Sant fans, or even those appreciative of the independent film niche before the budget of the film became the discerning factor. It picks up a little from the abstract symbolism of his death trilogy, and is yet much more art form than his one chink Finding Forrester.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd score it at a good score of about 8.2.