Gus Van Zant, director of Paranoid Park, has made over over a dozen films since 1989’s Drugstore Cowboy. A partial list reflects the range of his interests and styles: My Own Private Idaho, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, To Die For, Good Will Hunting, Psycho (the 1998 frame-by-frame remake with Anne Heche and Vince Vaughn), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Elephant (pseudo documentary of a “Columbine” like incident), Last Days (fictionalized version of the Kurt Cobain suicide), and 2008’s Milk, with Sean penn, for which Van Zant got his second Oscar nomination.
Van Zant is 55, lives in Portland, OR, and is openly gay. While only some of his films (Cowboy, Idaho, Milk) involve overt gay themes, he seems to do best when capturing tortured young males on screen. Paranoid Park, using untrained actors recruited via MySpace, is a tortured, elegiac musing on a violent incident one Saturday night near a bandit skate park under a Portland freeway. The film follows 16 year old skateboarder Alex as he tries to come to terms with his involvement in the affair.
Van Zant scrambles time by following Alex’ circular journal entries as he slowly works his way to the heart of the matter. During his introspection, he deflowers (at her request) his even more juvenile girlfriend/cheerleader, then breaks up with her because he fears she will want to have sex all the time; watches his out of focus parents as they bad mouth each other through a shabby divorce; and hovers around Paranoid Park, that gritty skate zone, which is just a bit too edgy for him to actually drop ion on his skateboard.
Half the film seems to be just Van Zant’s lens staring at Alex as he watches, listens, or writes. I could only take about 5-15 minutes of this film at a time. There is no narrative thrust, and little character development. Mainly, we’re treated to scenes of kids by their lockers, Alex looking like a lost puppy dog, and grainy slowed motion shots (and sounds) of young men skating in pipes and along urban ledges. But the disjointed structure, mixture of camera styles, and truly teen-age actors dis-ing and angsting is vaguely riveting. Van Zant usually knows what he wants to say, and how he wants to say it. At only 84 minutes, this little flick might be worth a watch, but be prepared for some down time.