Review of Paranoid Park (2007) by Joshua K — 12 Nov 2008

Paranoid Park is a wonderful example of why Indie films are one of my top favorite genres on Netflix. If you are a mainstream movie watcher, don't see this film. If you are a free-thinker who knows how to appreciate style and creativity; then you will thoroughly enjoy being absorbed into Alex's mind with wonderful usage of slo-mo cinematography, carefully placed and relevant music, and a casual style of script which was well played to my surprise considering the age of Nevins.

I found the lack of a straight-timeline sequence of events to be especially effective in letting myself the viewer put myself in the eyes of Alex, as terrible memories of Paranoid Park kept coming back, despite efforts to focus on skateboarding, the girlfriend, etc.

I won't spoil the ending, I will just say it is one that is a classic Van Sant style, letting the viewer decide the true closure.