Madeline
Paranoid Park is a movie all about style. I can’t say I like the style of this movie but I can appreciate it. The style in a nutshell: very monotone with tons of effects. The first five minutes are of skateboarding in a skate park. Once the viewer gets through that, there are plenty more drawn out scenes to enjoy. In many cases, these scenes are slowed down and take a large portion of the movie time.
The Cinematography and Making of Paranoid Park
So many of the scenes are just a slowed down shot of Alex, the main character, walking down a hallway. The movie dialog has no inflection. In many cases, some poor acting, which I later learned is due to using amateur everyday people as actors. The visual coloring of the movie is very muted. It is dull and grey. Even the sex scene is bland to the point that the viewer cannot be sure it’s a sex scene. Not quite my cup of tea. That being said, I think the whole purpose of this toned down movie is to say, “this could be you.” It reflects the real not exciting life that movies don’t usually portray.
If the makers of Paranoid Park were trying to get to the point, tell this story, and move on with their lives, it could have easily been thirty minutes. But if that was the route they decided to take, the feel of the movie would have been completely different. I can’t say I liked the styling choice but I get it. When the one major event happens, it happens. Just like in Alex’s mind, it’s the only thing that is significant. It happens quick and fast. Nothing else in this movie is important. Not Alex’s parents divorce. Not Alex having sex with his girlfriend for the first time. Its just this one thing.
Final Thoughts
This is a movie to either love or hate. I chose the later. There was little to it. It was stretched on by bad editing. This movie could have easily been a twenty minute movie but they made it into a full feature film by stretching out scenes. The need to do so was not there, but they did it anyways.
