SYNOPSIS: An unsolved murder at Portland's infamous Paranoid Park brings detectives to a local high school, propelling a young skater into a moral dilemma where he must deal with the consequences of his own actions.

EDITORIAL REVIEW:  Paranoid Park stars Gabe Nevins as Alex, a seemingly sensitive 16-year-old boy torn between spending time with his virgin and "in-heat" girlfriend, Jennifer, and his skate buddy Jared (Jake Miller).  A security guard is cut in half by a train near the East Side Skate Park, otherwise known as as Paranoid Park.  Police suspect foul play, and they seem to think the skate kids know something a little more than they are saying.  We learn the events of that faithful night from Alex as he tells us the story through a letter he's writing called, Paranoid Park.  Once we learn what really happened, director Gus Van Sant takes us on a mystical tour inside Alex's mind as he dissects what the hell just happened.

You can always tell a Gus Van Sant coming of age film from every other film written and/or directed by a similar filmmaker.  You don't even have to watch the credits or read about the film to know within the first 10 minutes that you are watching Gus Van Sant's work, whether he's the Executive Producer, Writer or Director.  1) He gets good looking actors who can act and make it look sincere; 2) the cinematography is excellent; 3) he can tell a story with only visuals and music; 4) he can hold a shot on one subject for minutes at a time without boring the viewer.  Oh ya, and there is always some sort of sexual undertone - usually, but not always, of the gay variety.  If there is a gay theme to Van Sant's movies, it's not always with the characters like in Wild Tigers I Have Known or My Private Idaho, but sometimes the "theme" is directed towards the viewer--an added bonus to the story telling would be the "eye candy".  Paranoid Park is one of those.  For example, Vant Sant shows the lead, Alex, as hetero, we assume, but on more than one occasion he shows a lot of skin.  Perfect for the guy who has no interest in the story, but rather the characters...or in this case, Gabe Nevins.

Body work aside, you will want to follow this story, and perhaps watch it twice.  You have to be a fan of Gus Van Sant's filmmaking abilities, and not his choice of genre, to really enjoy this movie.  The acting, the story telling, the shots...Gus Van Sant is all over this thing and if you're not a fan of his, or if you don't understand Van Sant's style, you'll probably be lost within the first 10 minutes or be completely confused at the end.  But that is what makes his movies so great.  Well, most of them anyways.

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* This DVD will play in North America only.  This DVD should play in most players outside of North America as well, but it's not guaranteed. This DVD will play in any computer DVD-Rom.  This is NOT a DVD-R.

STARRING: Gabe Nevins, Jake Miller, Taylor Momsen.
DIRECTOR: Gus Van Sant.
LENGTH: 85 minutes.
LANGUAGE: English.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 1.33:1 (4:3 Full Screen); 2.0 Stereo; 1 disc; Chapter selection; Uncut.
VIEWER DISCRETION: Coarse language, violence, some sensuality and sexual scenes.
PICTURE QUALITY: Excellent picture quality. (what's this mean?)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA (2007).
ALSO KNOWN AS:
DATE ADDED TO OUR LIBRARY:  January 29, 2010.