Gus Van Sant is known for making unique and interesting films. I can’t say I’ve seen many of them. Good Will Hunting might have been one of his biggest money making films, but the most recent I’ve seen, and own, would be Elephant, a fictional story based heavily on the Columbine school shootings. Van Sant likes to go for realism. Elephant is the first movie I’ve seen about high school students that were actually played by people of that age and were believable. I feel like some the same methods were used in Paranoid Park.
This film, involving teenagers, is all about a skateboarder named Alex, played by Gabe Nevins. Alex and a friend of his just started going to a park known as Paranoid Park. This is where all the “real” skate boarders come to hang out and skate around. One night, a security guard is found dead on some train tracks next to the park so Detective Richard Lu, played by Daniel Liu, starts canvassing the local schools in an effort to glean any information about the case.
Alex is trying to deal with the knowledge he has about the security guard, his parents getting divorced, and girl friend problems on top of everything else a teenager has to deal with these days. To cope, he pulls out his pencil and paper and tries to release his burdens through writing.
I mentioned Elephant earlier and I found a lot of similarities between the two. There are times when a particular scene is shot multiple times from different angles and following different characters. Classical-sounding music, including Beethoven, is in the soundtrack for both films. Very real-life actors were used to portray characters. Both films also take place in high schools and include teenagers. I’m sure there are some other similarities you’ll notice if you’ve seen both films.
Even though this is another one of those films one might describe as depressing and dark, there is still a lot of beauty to be found in it. I know some people laugh and make fun of the scene in American Beauty when Ricky Fitts shows Jane the most beauty thing he’s ever filmed, but it’s true, you can find beauty and truth in just about any place you look. Sometimes these places are even those weird, independent movies the masses aren’t clamoring to see.
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When American Beauty was released up until this year i guess, a silenced sliver of a minority dissed the plastic bag scene. The typical reaction and what was so effective about it, was one that had opened the simplest of minds and freed fresh perspectives from the quietest of participants. We tire of our own admiration as a society and resort to the race for the most cynical comment ever made.
Subliminal Monk, could you explain that a little more? I follow what you’re saying, but I don’t understand what you’re talking about in that last sentence there.