Paranoid Park
If you've ever just felt like there's something outside of normal life...this epic independent film based on the novel of the same title, penned by Blake Nelson ("Girl"), might offer you some consolation.
Because you're not alone.
Based around a teenage skater's search for something more than the world that dominates his waking hours - divorce that's not yet been made official among his parents, siblings with the same problems, and the ever increasing impossible scheme through adolescence - the film chronicles the crumbling mind of youth already in too deep after witnessing a murder he was all too familiar with.
The film is treated as a series of vignettes - never too light, and never too dark, with a back and forth woven story threaded with montages that tell more than a 150 page script could ever hope for. There is no linear sense in thought, but the events are drawn together like the mind of the young man himself.
To those who assume the film is laden with the traditional glamorization of skateboarding counterculture, you're way the fuck wrong, and to those looking for a film that's an extended and film noir Baker crew dvd, you're in the wrong place.
Because in all ways, this film transcends these realms entirely, while never leaving either. High school hallways filled with Strauss. Filming techniques that trick the eye. Dialogue that's too good to be on the streets.
To those interested in Gus Van Sant's continuing perfection of the delicacies that seperate independent film from Bad Boys II, you will be satisfied in the evolving style of complex camera treatment juxtaposed with times when it appears as if the lens has been thrown upon the floor.
This is one of those flicks that you're thinking about a week after last saw it, and a few weeks later, you're still thinking about it.
Or is it just paranoia?