Director Gus Van Sant returns to portraying teenage life in a film that fans of Elephant (2003) might appreciate. We follow one teenager, Alex (Gabe Nevins), a skater, as he hangs out at a Portland skate park, pays fleeting interest to his girlfriend (Taylor Momsen) and desperately tries to ignore the fact that he’s just also killed a security guard by mistake. A good, natural performance by Nevins (who’s never acted before), but the film is too repetitive and the abundance of admiring, slo-mo shots of skaters grows tiresome. 

2007-U.S.-France. 84 min. Color. Written and directed by Gus Van Sant. Novel: Blake Nelson. Cast: Gabe Nevins (Alex), Jake Miller (Jared), Dan Liu (Richard Lu), Taylor Momsen, Lauren McKinney, Grace Carter.

Trivia: Van Sant used MySpace to find the right amateur actors for the film.

IMDb