971

Van Sant checklist: androgynous teenage boys (check), gay scene out of nowhere (check), countless long tracking shots where nothing happens (check), weird angry people saying you just don't get it (check)

It has interesting moments and Van Sant certainly chose an interesting way of introducing the killers, but at the end of the day, the movie is mostly just plain boring.

A very real film from Van Sant. He does such an excellent job contrasting the hellish situation with such a eerily calm approach to it. The only thing that bothered me was the action of some of the characters seemed unrealistic and the shock factor of the film seemed slightly forced. Otherwise, this is one worth checking out.

Damn.

Gus Van Sant has been so much into "just filming reality, but still within a film", hasn't he? Like the excruciatingly slowly paced Gerry (recommended for marathon runners). Here (by mere accident one can assume) he get's it right. It's the proper mixture of tragedy, everyday life and a big fuck-you to film schema in general. Mesmerizing if disturbing.

An absorbing, hypnotizing and quietly delicate feature, a sort of Columbine fiction, I could say. One of the best of this decade, no doubt of that.

Interesting take on the whole Columbine phenomenon.

Columbine reimagined. The mammoth high school is a sad, lonely place.