Elephant

I'm not sure how many times I've already seen Elephant, but it's still always as good as the first time I saw it. There really isn't any film like it and it's truly something else. Van Sant does an amazing job giving the film its own feel and style. He just documents the last minutes of the lives of these high school kids and never forces an opinion on you saying that this or that led to the shooting in the end. Instead Van Sante gives multiple perspectives and takes on themes teenagers of today struggle with, introducing multiple reasons for why the tragedy happened, making it a very rich and layered work. And with showing not only the two shooters but also some of the victims, Van Sant shows how it could have been any of them as every teenager seems to have his or her own problems and nothing is truly what it seems. A kid who's not bonding well with his father, the girl who is made to feel insecure by girls talking behind her back, the atlethic guy with good looks all the girls fall for, and the girls who spend their afternoons shopping and talking about boys while trying to keep a slim and in their eyes perfect figure, are just a few of the teenagers Van Sant has walking around in Elephant. All these kids could have ended up taking a gun, having enough of this miniature society that is high school. Therefore the two teens who do take up the guns aren't shown as extremely aggressive or violent, having major troubles, but are just shown doing their daily business. They just seemed to have enough of other people giving them the feeling they're better than them bullying them round, isolating them. A concrete reasons doesn't seem to have been there and there isn't anything which can really take up all the blame. It's not that easy and the reason, if there is any, is much more spread out. A lot of Van Sant's signature clouds and beautiful long takes following kids around as they make their way through school drench Elephant in this peaceful atmosphere almost surreal and kind of dream like, making it a real work of art. It's a beautiful piece which handles its subject extremely well.

Verdict: A filmic experience like nothing else out there. Beautiful simplicity shedding different lights on a tragedy which happened for reasons only the two shooters can truly tell. A film that isn't for everyone, but art-house crowd will eat it like cake.