Paranoid Park, Gus Van Sant, 2007

In this high school murder mystery of sorts, Van Sant employs young, non-professional actors as the film's principals, a tact that served him tremendously in 2003's staggering and affecting Elephant. Here, though, the director rests too much on his adolescents' near-incessant blank stares, languid strolls, and mumbled interior monlogues.