Review of Paranoid Park (2007) by Mike M — 29 Jan 2009
It seems that using non-actors has become the popular thing to do when you're an established director making your arbitrary 'indie-cred' film (see also: Steven Soderbergh's Bubble). This choice is a gamble---it can work to make the film feel more realistic, or it just comes off as bad acting. Thankfully, for the most part Paranoid Park falls into the former category. While a few kids overthink what they're doing, the lead performance is one of the most natural I've ever seen. And since this is a film that's much more about the mindset of the main character than anything you'd call plot, that performance needed to carry the movie.
It does and Paranoid's dreamy tone carries the movie to become a better than average coming-of-age film.
However, If you're not one for movies full of long shots of characters walking, skating, or staring set to synthesized chords--you should probably avoid PP. I like those kind of movies...at least when they're 80 mins long.
This review of Paranoid Park (2007) was written by Mike M on 29 Jan 2009.
Paranoid Park has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
