arturmarques.com iLog Welcome Guest | Login or Register

I watched Paranoid Park (2007) on 2008–06–15.

I was looking for a slow paced movie, and I got it, but it failed my expectations regarding its capability to drag me in, out of Lisbon/Portugal to Portland/Canada, for some 90 minutes . It was boring.

Paranoid Park is a skate park, near Portland’s industrial district. The viewer is presented with way too much amateur skate action, as an excuse to build the main character, one androgynous Alex (actor Gabe Nevins), son of separating parents, living with his oncle, and dating a sex wanting – but not quite getting – cold gray eyes blonde (Jennifer/actress Taylor Momsen). Alex main attachment is to a stakeboard.

Alex’s clearest line of character is his apathy. He is apathetic at school, to his mother and to the chance of having sex, which is very odd for a teenager. It seems that Gus Van Sant, the director, intended to show apathy as a possible effect of todays’ high pressure on youngsters, but not even the story’s main event – the accidental and peculiar death of a security guard – shakes Alex much.

I disliked the slow motion scenes, the narrative technique – with regular bits of flash forwards, then backing – and the time it took to get to the guard’s death, that could have plummeted the movie.

I enjoyed some photography, some music, and some comedy related to Alex’s apathy.

Trackback this Post | Feed on comments to this Post