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| Value for Money | 2.5/10  |
|---|---|
| Overall rating | 2/10 |
By AUS critic
on 6th Sep 2004
| Starring Actor/Actress | Alex Frost, |
|---|---|
| Where Did You See It? | Cinema |
| Value for money | 5/10 |
| Overall value | 4/10 |
 AUS critic's recommendation | |
Winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
Elephant, the elegant and unsettling movie from Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting), depicts students at a high school before and during a harrowing, Columbine-style shooting. The movie follows one young boy who takes over the wheel from his drunken dad while returning from lunch, then loops back in time and follows another student who crosses paths with the first, then loops back and follows another -- all captured in long, unedited tracking shots that are serene and unhurried, even when two boys in camouflage gear, carrying heavy bags, arrive at the school and begin shooting. Elephant doesn't attempt to explain their behavior; it simply places the audience back in the brief yet interminable window of adolescence, when life is trivial and painfully important at the same time. Your reaction to Elephant will depend as much on your life experiences as anything in the movie itself.
It's a shallow film, it doesn't attempt to explain, or delve further into the reasons behind the student shooting, it's like a half-blotched job of 'Bowling for Columbine'. Elephant will raise relevent questions, but doesn't, in any attempt, even skim the answers.
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