Review of Elephant (2010) by Todd J — 19 Nov 2008

All great movies about teenagers generally have some theory of what it means to be in high school. For example, my favorite high school film, Fast Times at Ridgemount High, begins with the paradigm of teenage adult-workers-in-training.

Here, high school life is associated with draggy transience, something indicated by Van Sant's neverending tracking shots and the constant concentration on what's happening outside of the high school "work" life, whether it be college, that afternoon, social relationships, mud-bogging, etc.

Obviously, the school shooters are the antithesis to this as they not only deny themselves that transience but also deny others their promised escape from teenage life. Where Van Sant doesn't go all the way is in his depiction of this phenomena.

The film just accepts it as a natural phenomena in this life, something that it's clearly not, given the proliferation of these events in the past decade and change. That said, the film would be much less interesting with more flesh and experience on those characters, so it might be the best out of a problematic scenario.

**** out've *****.