Description

Paranoid Park 2007
R | 1h 25min | Crime, Drama, Mystery | 21 May 2007 (France)

Storyline:

The teenager and skateboarder Alex is interviewed by Detective Richard Lu that is investigating the death of a security guard in the rail yards severed by a train who was apparently hit by a skate board. While dealing with the separation process of his parents and the sexual heat of his virgin girlfriend Jennifer, Alex writes his last experiences in Paranoid Park with his new acquaintances and how the guard was killed, trying to relieve his feeling of guilty from his conscience.

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated R for some disturbing images, language and sexual content

User review:

Van Sant’s “Paranoid Park” could be described easily as nothing more than putting Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” into motion. Of course the background is different as we’re having the moral struggle put in youth and skate environment. As the plot twists, the director focuses on the realism of the main character’s’s struggle. This is why the movie definitely scores as 9 out of 10. Not because of the ‘moral message’ which was the main ‘goal’ of Dostoevsky’s book, but he uses all of available artistic and directing methods to picture something that is not distant for the viewer. It is more like picturing the struggles that recently became part of human nature.

Main character, although he’s a teenager, is already wasted and is having enough of his life. Sick and tired, doesn’t give much attention about his girlfriend, sexual initiation, family and friends as the ‘higher levels’ of morality and humanity became his main issues after his accident.

I think that the movie should be considered more as a inner mirror of struggles and hard issues that became a part of our everyday life. Gus Van Sant pictured it perfectly. 9/10. Nothing else to add.

Director: Gus Van Sant
Writers: Gus Van Sant (screenplay), Blake Nelson (novel)
Stars: Gabe Nevins, Daniel Liu, Taylor Momsen