Van Sant retains the lovely insider's perspective of floating on the surface of an alien if familiar-looking planet, courtesy of one-time Wong Kar Wai cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

| Jun 18, 2020

Captures the essence of high school life better than most teen movies could ever dream.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 6, 2019

This is easily Van Sant's most satisfying film of his recent youth alienation pictures.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 3, 2018

Glum yet gorgeous, Paranoid Park ties together Alex's bleak confusion with his more mundane existential teen traumas.

| Sep 5, 2018

..."Paranoid Park" nevertheless gets into the headspace of its young high school skater protagonist and treats with supreme respect what might be best described as a blown mind.

| Nov 17, 2017

Even when I was trying to appear indifferent I was still boiling inside and horrified by everything around me. I don't see that in Van Sant's teenagers; I don't recognize them.

| Nov 15, 2017

Too brief and good-looking to actively dislike, Paranoid Park is still uninspiringly repetitive. If you're going to play the same riff over and over again, at least lower it an octave.

| Aug 24, 2017

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 17, 2011

In Paranoid Park, not much actually happens and yet one teenager's mind is filled with far more than enough to ponder for a long time.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jun 23, 2010

The teenager's impressionistic headspace is his canvas, layered like a Keats poem and scored like an iPod

| Aug 27, 2009

In the hands of cinematographic mastermind Christopher Doyle, teenage spats, telephone calls and coasting skateboarders are infused with lyricism and dreaminess.

| Oct 18, 2008

It's breathtaking, heartbreaking, tragic, gorgeous, and true all at the same time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 18, 2008

| Original Score: A | Oct 18, 2008

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 1, 2008

It's a movie worth seeing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2008

[An] intriguing, mind-altering skateboard elegy.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 16, 2008

I would say that there is a really good 50 minute movie tucked away inside here, but Van Sant insists on padding it with material that doesn't belong.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 18, 2008

In a film where dialogue comes at a premium, Van Sant allows his camera to do the talking, and when it rests too long on one subject, the commentary feels like overstatement. Elsewhere, 'Paranoid Park' is eloquent in its terseness.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 29, 2008

Paranoid Park proves that growing up is often very hard to do -- but it's also a potent reminder that these teens deserve our respect and sympathy for their often imperfect efforts to do just that.

| May 20, 2008