Review of Elephant (2015) by Adam K — 09 Aug 2009

It had many strengths and a few weaknesses. At first I didn't like the storytelling, I thought it wasn't even storytelling, but rather documentation of events. But then as the film progressed I began to slowly understand the style and appreciate it.

Van Sant had a vision and was able to deliver by acting as both director and editor. The way time is dealt with was wonderful. Not until the scene is repeated did I even fully understand the time of the film, but then I got the hang of it.

The suspense builds and builds because of the way time is dealt with and the payoff is haunting and worth it. They way it documented these high school kids was a great character study really. But what I really liked was some of the long takes, although in a few instances I did think that they were too long.

But for the most part they were great exchanges and follows that really helped tell the story the way that Van Sant meant for it to be, they were well orchestrated. The only real drawbacks for me would be the tone of the film some of the time, it didn't feel the way I thought it should, it didn't match the tension and some of the reactions I didn't buy.

The acting was another, although I understand what Van Sant was doing, just never been my cup of tea using non-professionals. And then the worst part I thought was the score. Like the tone I felt it didn't mirror what was going on well enough and sometimes it just sounded and felt starnge.

Overall a very solid film though.