DIRECTOR Gus Van Sant’s fascination with youth culture (think “Elephant” and “Last Days”) continues with the intriguing, mind-altering skateboard elegy “Paranoid Park.”
The story unfolds in the words of Alex (Gabe Nevins), an alienated 16-year-old coping with warring parents, a virgin girlfriend (Lauren McKinney) who wants more than he’s willing to give, and the trauma brought on by his unwitting part in the gruesome death of a railroad cop.
Hanging out one night as the Portland, Ore., skateboard mecca known as Paranoid Park, Alex hooks up with a grungy older dude. A few beers later, the two decide that hopping a freight train would be cool. Their fun turns horrific when Alex pushes a middle-age cop into the path of a train.
His body is cut in half at the waist, a development that Van Sant shows in frightening detail. (I’ll spare you the “bottomless body” jokes.)
“Paranoid Park” whirls back and forth between that night and Alex’s attempts to deal with a numbing personal life.
Shot by Christopher Doyle, the finest cinematographer working today, “Paranoid Park” is a wild mix of styles – grainy, out of focus, in focus, slo-mo, close-ups.
The soundtrack – from Beethoven to Billy Swan to Fellini favorite Nino Rota – matches the visual mood.
The actors – nonprofessionals supposedly recruited via MySpace – contribute credible performances, with Nevins a sullen standout. Doyle, best known for his work with Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai, has a cameo as Alex’s Uncle Tommy.
PARANOID PARK
Skate fate.
Running time: 78 minutes. Rated R (violence, sex, lan guage). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Angelika.
vam@nypost.com