Paranoid Park

Director: Gus Van Sant
Actors: Taylor Momsen, Gabe Nevins, Jake Miller, Lauren Mckinney, Daniel Lui
Studio: Ifc
Category: DVD

List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.88
You Save: $7.07 (35%)


New (35) Used (10) Collectible (1) from $10.22

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars 15 reviews
Sales Rank: 5052

Format: Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 84 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7

MPN: GEPD81384D
UPC: 796019813846
EAN: 0796019813846
ASIN: B001CDFY7S

Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Paranoid Park

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Customer Reviews

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5 out of 5 stars Don't Trust Me- Read Some Real Reviews    December 16, 2008
WW85 (New York, NY United States)
There are 2 well known aggregate movie review sites, MetaCritic and Rotten Tomatoes that would give this film an average of 4 stars out of 5. (The NY Times review in particular is dead on, imho.) The 1 star "total bomb" reviews here are completely out of sync with accepted opinion of Paranoid Park.

Obviously, it's not for everyone. It is more for those that could appreciate Elephant or 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days than someone looking for an action skater flick. But it will go down as one of Gus Van Sant's best films in what is already a distinguished career. It's one of the most beautiful movies of recent years and the score and sound mixing is stupendous. But it takes some time and attitude adjustment to get into the flow with the film. It's well worth the time and almost demands multiple viewings.

As with Elephant, many of the young actors are novices at best. This is not a drawback at all. It only enhances the movie because the characters are so real.

Did I say it's one of the most beautiful films of recent years? Slow motion skaters, the train scene scored to a key passage from Beethoven's 9th, the shower scene, the beach, beautiful boys, beautiful girls, not so beautiful girls, losing ones virginity- all in beautiful slow motion scenes told out of sequence, often with no dialog and sometimes repeated to underscore certain points. Two signature Elliott Smith songs, played almost in their entirety, accompany two long and unedited shots of the title character to create two more memorable moments.

One of the best of 2007 and deservedly so...




1 out of 5 stars Death could not be THIS terrible    December 14, 2008
Joseph Cena (Lockport, New York)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I'm not really a fan of people who use cliched terms like "This was an hour and a half of my life that I wasted watching this film that I'll never get back again." But after watching this film, I truly understand why people would utter this sentiment. This film is beyond terrible beyond unwatchable. To be honest, I'm not a fan of the avant-garde "what does life really mean" type of movies - i.e. "Elephant," "Donnie Darko," "Mulholland Drive"-that are like watching a Robert Cormier novel come to life. I had to watch Van Sant's blatant Columbine exploitation "Elephant" for a class once, so I should've known what I was getting into with this one. However, the above movies are still made watchable by decent actors.

I'm sure Gussy Boy wants to get actors whom no one has ever heard of nor will ever hear of again to make the movie seem "real." Problem is, they can't act. I'm going to guess that's the point - let's have D-list actors have "real" dialogue with each other so that it seems "real." However, it just gets annoying. Van Sant spends so much time with the camera focusing on one character at a time that I began to wonder if a bout of narcolepsy had overtake him while at the helm.

Maybe I'm not hip enough to understand the idea this movie was trying to present. Maybe I'm too old (at the ripe age of 26) to understand the artistry and commentary on the life of a 17-year old skater, but man...really, this was painful to watch. And I've sat through Gone Fishin'.


3 out of 5 stars Guilt at Work    December 4, 2008
Artist & Author (Near Mt. Baker, WA)
Basically, this is a movie about a boy who, while hopping a ride on a train, is caught by the railroad watchman. When the watchman starts to attack his friend, Alex hits the watchman with his skateboard, causing him to fall back under the wheels of a coming train. I am sure the movie realistically depicts the uncertainty Alex felt about the situation, but it does not have him in any way deal responsibly with what he'd done. Traditional values parents may want to show this movie to their teens, and discuss what would be the right thing to do if an impulsive act causes irreparable harm. As with most such movies lately, there is plenty of bad language, some sex, and, of course, violence.


2 out of 5 stars Painfully slow Park    November 18, 2008
Torkx2 (Knoxville, TN)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful

The two sentence sublot summary intrigued me enough to want to watch this movie. It basically took an hour and a half to tell a five minute story. If that's your thing...lots of slow mow and lingering shots of close ups of people's faces or objects, then you may like this movie. I know some of the shots and "effects" were trying to be artistic but by the end I was yelling at the screen, "get on with it". So, not for everyone but not terrible either. Rent before you buy defintiley.


1 out of 5 stars Horrible Movie    October 27, 2008
Marcie K. Kuehl (Madison, WI United States)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful

Well, this sounded really good, and I bet it made a great book, however the filmmaking and acting was unbearable. You'd get a snippet of story and then like 3-5 minutes of someone walking in slow motion or skateboarding in slow motion...i think we were supposed to be relflecting on the SHOCKING events that were happening in the movie except there weren't any. It was predictable and boring. Maybe if the approach were different and the actors didn't try so hard this would have been better.