The real perk of my job – getting to watch screenings that may not come to Singapore :P  I got to watch Gus Van Sant's latest Paranoid Park which is about a teenager trying to reconcile his emotions when he accidentally kills a security guard.

I quite enjoyed it and not only because I'm a Gus Van Sant fan.  I still remember being blown away by My Own Private Idaho and To Die For.  My least favourite has to be Good Will Hunting.

This film cast with unknowns who did a very decent job.  Or shall I say Gus Van Sant did well as a director because the actors on the red carpet seem to have the exact personalities they portrayed on screen 🙂

I guess the key is to pick the right people to play the characters you want on screen.  Kinda like what he did with Keanu in My Own Private Idaho.

I thought it was more accessible than Elephant but there were others I spoke to who thought otherwise.  The story told in a non linear manner could throw some people off but I like how Gus Van Sant dealt with the range of emotions by inter-cutting skateboarding scenes shot in Super8 with the non-skateboarding stuff shot on 35mm.  Anyone who faltered as a youth would be able to relate to them. Some moments you think you're going to keel over with guilt, at other times you think all you have to do is tell the truth and other times you actually distract yourself into forgetting about the whole thing … even if it is for just a while.

That was why I thought the the lead was pretty good and quite convincing.  Through his sometimes pensive and other times very carefree protrayal, you were led to believe that his struggle with killing someone albeit by accident, a very real one.  And one can never underestimate because he could be the next Keanu Reeves :P  Anywho, if he becomes a big star in the future, don't forgot who thought he was going to be one :)  After all if the very hot Keanu can be an A-list actor despite having no acting range, the possibilities for the rest of us seem quite hopeful yet, much less the latest lead of Gus Van Sant's 2007 film.