Review of Paranoid Park (2007) by Jeff G — 03 Jan 2009

I knew this was a mood piece, but somehow I kept expecting a murder mystery the whole time I was watching it, and needless to say I was a bit disappointed about how little is resolved and how little character development there is. But then I haven't even managed to sit through Gerry or Last Days, so I suppose there's enough of a narrative here to keep my attention. As a mood piece, it's pretty to look at (thanks to Christopher Doyle). Certain scenes like the shower scene and the scene over.

Burnside Bridge were particularly memorable, and how most adults are shot far away and out of focus really captures the isolation of adolescence. The characters are a bit one-dimensional, but if I were a teenager, of course my gf would sound like nothing but a nagging twat. I still think a homicide is a bit to dramatic a plot device for a movie that's otherwise so anti-climatic. What is good about this movie is the realism, it really captures the apathy of today's american teens. I like to consider this film as a visual poem of the precise moment when a teenager realizes he's lost his innocence but yet to figure out how to become an adult, with the homicide acting more as a metaphor. And as that, it gets 4 stars.

BTW, I live in Portland and had been to many of the landmarks in the film like Burnside Bridge and Burnside Skatepark, the film does strike a chord with me for nostalgic reasons.