Review of Paranoid Park (2007) by James G — 20 Jul 2008

After flirting with the mainstream a few years back (Good Will Hunting, Finding forrester etc) Gus Van Sant has returned to his more offbeat roots recently. Paranoid Park takes the accidental murder plot from a teen novel, but with an avant-garde cinema twist.

Although the plot is fairly suspenseful, Van Sant mixes up the structure and plays around with the editing, including lo-fi footage of skateboarders and static dreamy shots to create an effective mood of dislocation and disconnection with reality.

Despite its more experimental moments, the characters all feel real and the film benefits from the awkwardness of the non-professional cast. The lack of traditional narrative coherence and resolution is bound to disappoint, but there's still much to enjoy here.