Teenage skaters, especially mildly depressed ones who listen to Elliot Smith all day, aren’t the most expressive of creatures. They rock shaggy haircuts, and have permanently slouched postures and overly-chill demeanors, sometimes enhanced by THC. It’s an easy group to dismiss. But in Paranoid Park, which screened at the Cleveland Film Fest last weekend and opens at Cedar Lee on Friday, audience members are given a chance to really get inside the head of such teens, to learn that there’s more going on than the perfection of a kick-flip. Director Gus Van Sant takes the life of this species seriously. There’s no trivialization or pepped-up happiness. It’s real. …
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2008.