Alex, a teenaged skateboarder, is interviewed by Detective Richard Lu about the death of a security guard severed by a train who was apparently hit by a skateboard. While dealing with the separation process of his parents and the sexual heat of his virgin girlfriend Jennifer, Alex writes his last experiences in Paranoid Park with his new acquaintances and how the guard was killed, trying to relieve his feeling of guilty from his conscience.
Paranoid Park becomes a portrait of the skate punk as repressed personality. The movie doesn't really go anywhere as a story, it simply unfolds.
– Tom Long,
Detroit News,
21 Mar 2008
rotten:
Regarding Paranoid Park as an elongated short rather than a feature helps a bit, because it's a miniature in spirit -- a small-format portrait of psychic malaise that just happens to last 84 minutes.
– Amy Biancolli,
Houston Chronicle,
21 Mar 2008
fresh:
Gus Van Sant's capper to a trilogy of experiments in elliptical narrative and lyrical structure is a masterful triumph of art, craft and empathy for the complicatedness of being a real teenager.
– Ted Fry,
Seattle Times,
21 Mar 2008
fresh:
Paranoid Park, Gus Van Sant's mesmerizing new movie, melds the dreamy languor of his last few films with a page-turner of a plot.