Overall Rating
  Awesome: 44.44%
Worth A Look: 29.63%
Average: 2.47%
Pretty Bad: 8.64%
Total Crap: 14.81%
7 reviews, 39 user ratings
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| Elephant |
by Jason Whyte
"'It's been a good year for Gus Van Sant.'"
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Back in May, I saw Gus Van Sant's "Gerry", the thrilling, operatic, hypnotic spell of a film that let its characters wander and wander through the desert, the Cinemascope photography dwarfing their existence, the Tarkovsky brood, the Arvo Pärt score oozing through the frame. Many people despised this film for what they felt was a glacial pace, for me, it was a revelation to see bold risks still being communicated through film. And somehow, through some miracle, his latest film "Elephant" towers into beauty. Here is what great filmmaking is all about."Elephant" shows a group of kids in a very ordinary school in Oregon, from the good-looking jock to the geeky kid, the bleach-haired surfer kid, to the teeny-bopper girls to two miserable looking boys who appear to have something else on their mind. The school looks depressingly ordinary, from the naked walls to the staff (Matt Malloy, best known for playing Aaron Eckhart's buddy in "In The Company of Men", is the only known actor in this movie.), and everyone seems to be lost in their own little world.
Shot by shot, the film unveils its plot and its events, and my mind was racing, screaming "Something is happening...something is happening here!". We think we know what it is, but watch how Van Sant plays seemingly little events and then replays them from different angles. The first time he does this, I was astounded. You don't see this moment coming, but everything suddenly clicks at this point and we are thrilled as to where it is taking us next. I will not reveal what happens, but if you don't know, please do your best to avoid other critics who like to reveal the surprises. (Oddly enough, the film's theatrical trailer, in a day of "show-me-everything!" mentality, is free of spoilers.)
Van San't referenced Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr greatly in "Gerry," and here, he seems to be fully in love with the camerawork of Stanley Kubrick. Watch the careful shifts in light, the long stedicam takes, the buildup of music and sounds, the sudden shocks of noise...Mr. Kubrick seems to be oozing quite a bit into every frame. As well, this film was filmed and screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio theatrically, which Kubrick also did so nothing would be lost in translation to pan and scan videos. A bit of honor, perhaps?This film won the top prizes at Cannes, both the Golden Palm and Best Director. And I can see why. I loved this film for presenting its complex material in a fascinating, interesting way, always original and compelling. I hate to sound cliche, but this is why I love going to the movies.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8236&reviewer=350
originally posted: 10/01/03 17:59:07
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OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2003 Vancouver Film Festival. For more in the 2003 Vancouver Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2003 Starz Denver Film Festival. For more in the 2003 Starz Denver Film Festival series, click here.
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USA
24-Oct-2003 (R)
DVD: 04-May-2004
UK
N/A
Australia
01-Apr-2004
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