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Mop-top stuff from Gus Van Sant… After turning his back on the mainstream 6 years ago with his striking yet spurned two-man tale, Gerry, acclaimed writer/director Gus Van Sant (Elephant, Last Days) delivers in refined style once more with his own eccentric yet poignant spin on the teen' movie genre.Adapted from Blake Nelson's best selling novella and shot masterfully in Van Sant's hometown of Portland, Paranoid Park hinges upon an act of acute violence. Alex (Gabe Nevins) is a confused schoolboy skater whose life hits turmoil following his role in the death of a local security guard. The film itself, then, is largely told from Alex's perspective as he goes back and forth in his mind and notebook in an attempt to vindicate his tainted conscious and make sense of why and how things happened the way they did.With the chronology of the omniscient narrative skewed and certain specific preliminary sequences misleading, Paranoid Park establishes a near perfect balance between form and content. The naivety and confusion stirring behind Nevins' infantile eyes are both complimented and mirrored by the structure of the plot. In his feature debut, Nevins gives a modest performance of troubled teen' in whom thoughts of; family, divorce, sex, skating, school and murder suffer a succession of high-speed collisions. At the age of just 15 years, Nevins' not only performs with quality beyond his tender years and experience, but provides a leading performance that is as convincing as it is impressive.As for Van Sant, his tight film-making skills are exhibited throughout in what has to be considered as an experimental picture wherein an uncanny blend of hand-held, slow-mo' scenic inter-cuts, out-of-sync shots and mellow off-screen alternative music carve a moody yet nonchalant atmosphere that at times suggests that this is an independent crime-mystery drama, at others: a tale of boy becomes man. Whatever it is, it brings to mind the likes of Memento and Brick. Hence, it is simply brilliant. Mystifying, moving and quite majestic. Paranoid Park is one of this year's most haunting and interesting features that is genuinely up there with Van Sant's finest work thus far.
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