MovieChat Forums > Paranoid Park (2007) Discussion > pretentious, narcissistic, pseudo intell...

pretentious, narcissistic, pseudo intellectual, neo-conceptual garbage


This film is a pretentious, narcissistic, pseudo intellectual, neo-conceptual piece of garbage. And I will tell you why.

First of all shooting the film nonlinearly is completely pointless, except to make it artsy fartsy, it also takes what little suspense there could have been out of the film. My biggest problem was the way he justified telling the story in this manner, by adding that on expository line, about how he is not a good writer so things are bit mixed up. Gee thx for clearing up why this film is shot in such a pointless way.

I also felt the acting was very poor, either that or the writing was very bad, actually I think both the acting and the writing was bad.

Ill start with the writing, ok high school kid do not talk like that. I know I never talked like that, and I don’t know anyone else who talked like that. All the dialog seemed to be very expository. A lot of it was either explaining something that just happened, or letting us know exactly what each kid was thinking the writing basically did the acting for the film.

Like when all those kids got called to the office, and then that one kid sits down and says “why are they calling all the skateboarders to the office” you might as well just put a big subtitle on the screen saying “and now all the skateboard kids were just called to the office… just letting you know case you where to stupid to figure it out yourself” and that’s the same kind of unnatural, synthetic dialogue throughout the whole film.

The entire narrative was so poorly written, and don’t tell me “oh it was because it’s suppose to be written the way the kid writes and since he’s not a good writer it’s not written well” because that’s not an excuse for a bad voice over or for bad writing. The voice over sounded rehearsed, and it sounded like the kid was rushing to get to the end, it had no flow and it didn’t breath.

Now I’ll talk about what really makes me dislike the film, and that the whole pseudo intellectual, neo-conceptual art aspect to it. Now I know some people love neo-conceptual art for whatever reason they think it has deep intellectual meaning or some crap like that. But even if you like that junk this movie is still insulting to anyone with any shred of intelligence. The film is basically an hour and a half of bashing us over the head with metaphors and symbolism's, in order to be artsy. And before you attack me with your automatic response of “oh you don’t like it cause you don’t ‘UNDERSTAND’ it” guess what I get it, yes that’s right in my infinite wisdom I was able to understand the metaphors and the similes, how could I not, they were so blatantly obvious I think mentally challenged wombats would have picked up on them. Let’s take the title for instance, can you be any more obvious, I don’t think the blind def kids in the back picked up on it. maybe we should call the film, “broken children in the gripping struggle of life try find themselves but unfortunately fall victim to an ill-fated accident that consumes their very life with feeling of depression and paranoia” or, maybe that’s to long winded. At any rate this kinder garden symbolism is prevalent throughout the entire film. I found it very condescending, and degrading to my intelligence, it’s as if the director thought I would be too stupid to pick up on subtle symbolism he felt necessary to assault me with frivolous “deeper meaning” imagery and sounds.

Sorry but if you find this film genius and intellectually stimulating, you’re probably greatly lacking in brainpower, or else you’re just trying to look smart amongst elitist pretentious snobs.

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What? do you even know what symbolism is??

I love how every movie that does anything interesting, is a little different, a little differently paced, toned, or imagined, or relies more on the visual quality of cinema rather than persistent narrative, is immediately derided for pretension.
Its like people are constantly bi+ching that every movie isnt made exactly the same, conceived in the same mold and catered to their conditioned tastes and espectations.

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Everything is pretentious, Illusion.

Everything is pretentious.

Yes, I'm irked by Gus Van Sant (mainly for "My Own Private Idaho", which is supposed to irk you with its clash between idealism, human pathos, and surrealism), but he made "Elephant" and "Milk".

And those films you named are quite good, but sadly, they're directed by directors who don't flaunt that artistic talents constantly. This is for a crowd that considers those films too mainstream. I'm not dissing "Paranoid Park" - I actually want to see it - but let's face it: Gus is not a god at film directing.

But he's an artist. This is like a realist painting.

Oh, yeah. If you want pretentious garbage, watch a Yahoo Serious movie. Everything is meant to represent something in one of those movies.

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It's fvcking scary to see how so many people can't handle "different". *beep* storytelling! You might want all your films to be exactly the same, but please remember you are not alone out there and some people actually DO like blank canvases with a black dot. What's so wrong with concetpual art? Why wouldn't be allowed to transfer to film?

Comments like yours only scare the living shlt out of me. Whether you like it or not, you are the type of person who would like everyone to dress the same, think the same, be the same simply because... because what? There isn't one single way to express yourself cinematically. If you can't handle different that's one thing, but to put it down because of that, then we've got a problem.

You're so proud of "understanding" the movie (bravo! kudos), but to understand the story is just the tip of the iceberg and that's when the concepts and experimentation comes in. You are the same type of person who over a hundred years from now would bash on the paintings of Edvard Munch because they didn't conform to the standards of their time. Yet the man is considered a genius today for precisely having pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable.

What a boring world you must live in that people aren't allowed to try different techniques, different approaches to filmmaking. Im not saying it always works. I liked Paranoid Park, but I don't believe it's Sant's best (that title goes to Elephant imo). The beautiful thing though is that he WANTED to do something different. It truly saddens me that you can't look at the big picture more objevtively

As for the acting, some of the people on this thread a really coming from a long way that they are not familiar with non-professional actors in film. I suggest watching a few Italian neo-realist films, the works of Robert Bresson, some Altma and even today Bruno Dumont. The hammy performances are there for EFFECT, they cause an impression. If you only see a bad performance, then, again, you're only looking at the surface. Try to put it in perspective.

Film has so much more to offer than being a simple spectacle. It all comes down to what you expect of film. Do you want to simply forget your troubles for a few minutes or do you want to actively watch something that might help you see the different colors of the world we live in. That's what great art does. There needs to be not only an effort on the artist's side, but also on the spectators in order for a bond to form and then hopefully to get something out of the whole experience.

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People on these boards tend to fall into two camps.

A) "Yeah, I get all the symbolism and it annoys me there was so much" (etc.)
B) "You just hated it because there weren't enough explosions" (etc.)

It doesn't matter whether you think a film is pretentious or pandering, if the films connects with you emotionally, engages you into wanting to know more about the characters or watch the perspective of the camera, then stop worrying about why or how much.

If symbolism bugs you, stop looking for symbolism and just watch the movie for what it is. Apart from a few filmmakers, I find it very hard to believe that any director goes out of their way to make a "pretentious" film. If you feel like a movie is talking down to you, the problem is probably you thinking the movie is talking down to you.

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You've got your principles, I've got mine: I don't trust people who use the expression "artsy fartsy" except in the most purely ironical sense.


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I understand, Mike, that your discernment and talents in art appreciation are far superior to the rest of us idiots, but why did you have to go and spoil our innocence? I could have gone my whole life without knowing that I am greatly lacking in brainpower, or subconsciously trying to look smart amongst elitist pretentious snobs.

All this money I've wasted on extensive higher education, sigh...woe is me.

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wow with 3 lines of sarcasm you just unraveled a coherent and compelling argument without even have it to refute it!! my cap off to you sir.

moron.

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ps OP i couldn't agree w you more people need to grow some balls about art/criticism appreciation... anything could pass as art these days if just enough of the "right" people say it is... you can obviously get away with a black dot in a white canvas as long as you justify if with some rhetoric about its metaphorical meaning... maybe you say it represents the lone dark individuality in the stark canvas of the nothingness that is everything and then voila! and even if the artist didn't even imbue his original work with anything of cultural relevance or artistic value, most art "appreciators" will gladly supply it for you.

somebody just has to say the emperor is naked sometimes.

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[deleted]

Y'know. You're not an idiot because you don't like something. You're justifications are extremely poor and come off as quite defensive, '“oh you don’t like it cause you don’t ‘UNDERSTAND’ it”' most people, or at least not moronic people, don't say this.

It all comes together as though you did didn't understand it and you are scared that's why you didn't like it. But so what? How could you like something you don't understand?

Now I'm not saying this is a great film. There are many films accused of being pretentious simply because they have an artful direction, but this isn't one of them. The film was clearly trying to make a point about coming of age and responsibility through the medium of skating footage and it was a bit lame. But when you use terms like "pretentious, narcissistic, pseudo intellectual, neo-conceptual piece of garbage" you have to know what they mean or you ironically become the pretentious one.

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"An idle mind will find mystery in a colostomy bag." Robt. Williams


"Paranoid Park is crap and a waste of time" Oldewill

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So if you liked the film you are a pretentious idiot whose arty fartsy and finds meaning out of a piece of crap in a cup? lol..and if you don't like the film your a idiotic simpleton who doesn't get it and who only likes explosions. Why all this bickering? I find it humorous when people have this tendency to want to control others through the use of insults and peer pressure. They want others to like the things they like..and get so damned rabid when their viewpoint is threatened. This goes for people on all sides. It seems like to preserve ur own values and belief system and in essence, your sense of worth, you go on the attack over the simplest thing like a movie. Then again, this is why message boards are created lol. And this is not aimed at somebody in particular..just a general vibe I get when these debates become so heated and insulting.

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.

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