Plot Synopsis: When Alex (Gave Nevins) visits a local skate park, he accidentally kills a security guard. He’s able to cover it up, but is racked with guilt. When the police begin to investigate, he struggles with keeping it a secret or telling the truth.
Justin Oberholtzer
Gus Van Sant uses a unique style to tell his story. He has the lead, Alex, write down his story, with it being played out on screen. It starts off more straightforward with the story being played out as being told to Detective Richard Lu (Dan Liu). Once he starts putting it down on paper, we see the real story. That being how he accidentally murdered a security guard near Paranoid Park.
Paranoid Park itself is a beguiling place. Constructed by lowlifes and hoodlums, it’s a resort for the outcasts to relax. Due to it’s residents (some of which who live there), it’s viewed as dangerous and frightening by the normal skaters. This adds to the appeal, which is why Alex treks down there. While we see his interactions with patrons there (and the eventual murder), we don’t stay here long, which is a shame.
I knew going in this film wasn’t going to center around the park. It’s a tale of guilt and how one deals with it. The fascinating aspect being the guilty party is a teenager. How exactly is a young man who hasn’t quite developed into himself yet going to deal with such a traumatic incident? For awhile, it’s interesting watching as he struggles with his emotions.
That’s the problem “Paranoid Park” encounters. It’s only interesting for awhile. Once Gus gets comfortable with the story, he seemingly goes on autopilot. The plot tends to meander, with an entire scene being devoted to Alex going shopping with his girlfriend, Jennifer (Taylor Momsen). This would be fine if it were to develop their relationship, but it feels more like padding. Which unfortunately seems to be the case for most of the back half.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked this film. I found it to be unique and absorbing. It just can’t sustain that momentum. It doesn’t help that the artsy filming style & erratic score seem to exist solely to be different, as opposed to matching the film’s tone and/or acting as symbolism. Still, it’s an agreeable watch that, despite some meandering, moves at a fine pace.
Why You Should Put This In Your Queue: It’s a unique look at a person being stricken with guilt and how they deal with it. It’s kind of like “The Tell-Tale Heart” if it were set at a skate park.
Why You Shouldn’t Put This In Your Queue: It loses steam a little over halfway through and it’s filming style can be off-putting.
Matt Stetler
A character in Paranoid Park says the line “no one’s ever really ready for Paranoid Park.” Clearly I was not ready for Paranoid Park, seeing as I didn’t take a Quaalude before viewing. I’m open to any and all kinds of film, even the art house ones that hipsters brag about seeing (yet deep down inside, they didn’t understand but can’t admit to it less they lose their cred). Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park could easily fall into this category, but holy hell, this is a slow paced film. Turtles would complain that this film is to slow. It is a long, drawn out, excruciating experience of a movie. Van Sant took about a thirty minute idea and stretched it out to an unbelievable 86 minutes using played out film school techniques, like cars driving over a bridge sped up and lots of slow motion. Seriously, you could not possibly prepare for the amount of slow motion in this movie. Also, there are sequences that seem to last 5 to 10 minutes even though they are really maybe 1 to 2 minutes, yet they seem to be longer because they are of things that add nothing to the story and slow the non-present pace so much. Do we really need to see the main character Alex walk from his classroom, down the hall and into another room? Then do we need to see him leave the same room and walk back to his classroom…while in slow motion??? It’s almost as if Van Sant loved the music that he set to these scenes so much he didn’t want to have to cut it, so he sacrificed his film so his favorite tunes could get featured in his film.
It is a shame, because there is something here, hidden amongst the scene after scene of slow motion skateboarding footage. There’s a message about the current teenage generation and a lack of conviction to anything except their own self-gratification. Sadly, Van Sant allows this message to just float around in this mess like it’s the last Cheerio in the bowl. Do you want to even bother fishing it out or just wash it down the drain? It took twelve minutes just for Paranoid Park to get on the ground running. I felt like I was in a casino in that I couldn’t keep track of time. The film skips forward and backward, which is fine, but everything looks the same so it takes you a moment to try and figure out if you’re five minutes ahead or five days behind.
It almost angers me, because there was a possibility that this film could have worked and it just failed. I don’t know if it’s the material (or lack of material) or Gus Van Sant’s direction. The way the story is told, through the main character and the way parts of the film replay themselves, with each time more of the story being revealed work. Sadly, the film just drags on and on. I couldn’t wait for it to end…and that was at the thirty minute mark. Save your time, steer clear of Paranoid Park, get outside and go to a real park. Even if it’s raining out, you’ll have a more enjoyable time.
Why you should put this in your queue? If you can deal with the funeral procession pace, there is an interesting “morality play” type of story being told.
Why you shouldn’t put this in your queue? The pacing of this film is just awful. It is so slow, and seeing that it doesn’t have very far to go, there is no reason we should have to sit through 86 minutes of it for what many would consider a weak payoff.