Paranoid Park

Alex enters the East Side skate park ParanoidPark saying “I don’t think I’m ready yet” – andruns out with a security guard’s accidental deathin his eyes. He throws his skateboard off thebridge and his bloodstained t-shirt in a garbagecontainer. Only his friend Macy understands thatsomething happened.Sensitively, director Gus van Sant continuesthe examination of American high schoolkids that he started with “Elephant” afterthe Columbine killings. Rain Cathy Li’s super8-shots of skateboarders in slow motion andChristopher Doyle’s beautifully-lit 35 mmtakesportray silent skaters with vulnerablebacks. Van Sant, as always, avoids clichés of“young” music and cool talk. Instead, displacedatmosphere sounds, strains of Fellini’s musicman Nino Rata and voices of Johnny Cash and Elliot Smith bend and blend the music collagethat accompanies this lingering film. LaurenMcKinney shines as goth-wise girl Macy and sodoes Taylor Momsen as Jennifer, a cheerleaderwho craves sexual experience NOW, and hollersat her distant on-and-off boyfriend. The longclose-ups carry Alex’s sense of taking part ofunreal events.

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