Paranoid Park is a 2007 American-French drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Blake Nelson and takes place in Portland, Oregon. To cast the film's youths, Van Sant posted an open casting call on social networking website MySpace inviting teenagers to audition for speaking roles, as well as experienced skateboarders to act as extras.On the page, he posted an open casting call for males and females aged 14–18 who were "skaters, honor roll [students], cheerleaders, punks, drama kids, musicians, artists, student council [members], athletes, award winners, cla** skippers, photographers, band members, leaders, followers, shy kids and cla** clowns. Filming began in October 2006 and took place at various locations in and around Portland. Scenes at the fictional Eastside Skatepark were filmed at Burnside Skatepark which was, like Eastside, built illegally by skateboarders.
Paranoid Park tells the story of Alex (Gabe Nevins), a 16-year-old skateboarder,who lives with his mum(his parents are divorced) and his young brother in Portland.As an amateur skateboarder who hasn't that many sk**s,Alex feels uncomfortable with the idea of skating in the city's skatepark named Paranoid Park. One night, he decides to go there by himself, and ends up meeting Scratch (Scott Patrick Green), who invites him to have a few beers and ride a freight train clandestinely . While the train is moving, a security guard (John Burrowes) notices the pair, chases after them, and tries to get them off by hitting Scratch with his flashlight. During the melee, Alex hits him with his skateboard and the guard, losing balance, falls onto another track into the path of an oncoming freight train which cuts him in half. Throughout the film Alex keeps the incident to himself, and does not confide in anyone else. One of his friends, Macy (Lauren McKinney), notices that he is worried about something. She advises him to write down whatever is bothering him as a cathartic release, if nothing else. He initially rejects the idea, but eventually writes an account, which becomes the basis for the story.
Gus Van Sant tries to show the psychologic view of Alex,who is a young skater who doesn't smile much, neither talks much. He isn't a top student, neither the typical popular guy,and spends most of his time with other skateboarders.Being alone doesn't seem as a problem for him, at least he doesn't show so much.He isn't the guy who tries to impress anyone, do small talk, and doesn't really care for appearances. A good example for this is his friend Macy and his girlfriend Jennifer. Despite Jennifer is a blonde, tall cheerleader, Alex prefers spending time with Macy, a not that pretty girl but who has a good heart and an interesting personality.A short scene that called my attention is when he asks for his mums car so he can go to his friends house. He starts driving listening to a "happy" kind of beat, dancing and smiling.A few minutes later, he stops by a drive-thru and asks for 2 cheeseburgers and a milkshake. After a while, the song playing is sad, Alex looks disturbed with something, looking all the time at the mirror, seeming paranoid. For me, it really seems as Alex smoked marijuana alone. At first, the effect is great, he forgets his personal problems and feels the music. Later, he got hungry and ate. And after a while, the effect is coming down and the bad feelings inside him start to consume him again, and I believe the weed aggravate what he feels, thats why the paranoia. This information, of course, is not that important, but its a detail that helps to create the profile of Alex's personality.
Two other interesting scenes are the one with the detective and the one at Jared's house. The first one shows how intelligent Alex is, being able to deal with the pressure of the detective interrogation, and remaining calm all the time. The second one shows how desperate Alex is for not having anyone to talk to about what has just happened to him, not even his family. He pick up the phone at Jared's place, calls his father but shortly after, doesn't feel safe enough to stay in the line.
Alex is one in a few kind of kid.Gabe Nevins, in fact, has some kind of shine on him. A honest look, kind heart, calm but crying for help, like when his mum asks him if he called his father during the weekend, and he tells he might have called but half sleep, he doesn't really remember. A poor excuse that probably most of mothers wouldn't really believe in it. This shows how alone Alex feels in his life.
Despite being a bit depressing, the movie approaches loneliness and the life of a teenager skateboarder from a different perspective.