A
new Gus Van Sant film is always an event. The director has always
been a bit of a maverick, forging his own particular style –
and indeed going further to create his own filmic grammar. The
apotheosis of that progression can be seen in his poetic yet profound
Elephant. Now he tries to take that to another level
again with Paranoid Park.
While you have to give Van Sant full marks for his
brave approach to his craft, sadly Paranoid Park misses
the mark. The crucial difference between Elephant and
this film is that while the former was a perfect synthesis of
narrative and stylistic elements, in the latter, the narrative
is missing in action.
Ostensibly, the plot involves the death of a security
guard in a railway yard near a skate park known locally as Paranoid
Park. A young skateboarder named Alex (Gabe Nevins) is among several
questioned about the incident, but is seemingly discarded as a
suspect. Things however may not be all they seem; and Alex has
some things he wants to get off his chest. So he starts to write
down his experiences – experiences that involve not just
the incident in the railway yard, but his parents’ impending
divorce, his high-maintenance girlfriend Jennifer (Taylor Momsen)
and his relationship with Macy (Lauren McKinney).
I say ostensibly, because the film isn’t really
about any of those things. It’s about youth culture (skate
culture in particular), alienation, detachment and a desperate
need for connection. Van Sant explores these themes in a lyrical
and often quite beautiful way. He uses a fragmented time frame,
voiceovers, stunning cinematography, abstract scenes and a haunting
score to do so. At times, the film is simply breathtaking (and
in one particular scene, shockingly so).
The
problem is that this portrait of a young man in crisis goes precisely
nowhere in a narrative sense. I’m not a particular fan of
structured storytelling in the vein of Robert McKee’s theories
(I can imagine McKee watching this film and literally pulling
his hair out); but there has to be an emotional pay-off for the
audience’s investment in Van Sant’s cinematic exercises.
That much-anticipated pay-off however never arrives
– at least, it didn’t for me. The film essentially
peters out at the end, leaving a hollow feeling. After the emotional
knockout punch of Elephant, I felt rather cheated by
Paranoid Park.
As the young man at the centre of the drama, Gabe
Nevins does a reasonable job without being particularly memorable.
Since he appears in basically every scene, he needs to have a
solid grasp on the material, and he certainly does that. He effectively
conveys the ennui and internal conflicts of the character; although
at times he plays Alex in such an understated way, he’s
in danger of disappearing off the screen. Given Nevins’s
dominance of the film, the supporting players get limited opportunities.
One who does is Taylor Momsen as the vapid Jennifer; while Daniel
Liu as a detective and Lauren McKinney as Macy make their marks
on the film.
I was really looking forward to Paranoid Park,
and I don’t know if it was the weight of expectation, but
I was disappointed. For all its beauty and lyricism, it’s
a triumph for style over substance. We know Van Sant can do it,
but this isn’t the best example of his talent.
David Edwards
To see the trailer for Paranoid
Park, click the play button below
A
new Gus Van Sant film is always an event. The director has always
been a bit of a maverick, forging his own particular style –
and indeed going further to create his own filmic grammar. The
apotheosis of that progression can be seen in his poetic yet profound
Elephant. Now he tries to take that to another level
again with Paranoid Park.
The
problem is that this portrait of a young man in crisis goes precisely
nowhere in a narrative sense. I’m not a particular fan of
structured storytelling in the vein of Robert McKee’s theories
(I can imagine McKee watching this film and literally pulling
his hair out); but there has to be an emotional pay-off for the
audience’s investment in Van Sant’s cinematic exercises.