Paranoid Park (2007)
7/10
"Grownups do stuff for money. There is no other reasons."
10 March 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Gus Van Sant does it again, although it took me a while to get into the film. But the combining of some classical ditties en peculiar shots and close-ups and the (crime) story, including a gruesome horror scene filmed from above, reminded me of good old Hitchcock, more specifically 'Psycho' (1960)... an actual shower scene can be no coincidence then, right? Well, we all knew how big a fan Van Sant was of that film.

Furthermore, there's an extraordinary and fun choice of songs ('I can help' by Billy Swan, for instance), a series of 'hallway'-scenes reminiscent of Van Sant's earlier 'Elephant' (2003) and a fine build-up through an ingenious play with time and that notebook that keeps popping up everywhere.

Unfortunately, I wasn't very much convinced by the acting, Gabe Nevins would seem more in place as a poster-boy for some big jeans brand or something. It was mostly the talent of Van Sant which I enjoyed here.

A solid 7 out of 10.
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