Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

punishmentpark Gus Van Sant does it again, although it took me a while to get into the film. But the combining of some classical ditties en peculiar shots and close-ups and the (crime) story, including a gruesome horror scene filmed from above, reminded me of good old Hitchcock, more specifically 'Psycho' (1960)... an actual shower scene can be no coincidence then, right? Well, we all knew how big a fan Van Sant was of that film.Furthermore, there's an extraordinary and fun choice of songs ('I can help' by Billy Swan, for instance), a series of 'hallway'-scenes reminiscent of Van Sant's earlier 'Elephant' (2003) and a fine build-up through an ingenious play with time and that notebook that keeps popping up everywhere.Unfortunately, I wasn't very much convinced by the acting, Gabe Nevins would seem more in place as a poster-boy for some big jeans brand or something. It was mostly the talent of Van Sant which I enjoyed here.A solid 7 out of 10.

oceanchick Gus: I'm taking time out of my life to give you some words of advice from the heart. Quit settling for crap, Gus. Demand your casting directors hire experienced actors and not their 8th grade son's classmates. Don't cast just because they can stand on a skateboard. Cast high caliber actors and give them skateboard lessons. I saw you were going awry in Last Days but thought for sure you'd learned your lesson with Elephant and I never thought anything could be worse, but I was wrong. You had something in your hands, under your control, that could have been great, Gus, and destroyed it. It was heartbreaking.Remember the basics. Something everybody learns their first session in film school: hire REAL actors. You can add a shot variety, interesting cinematography, decent music, compelling study on ethics and you have the recipe for a good film but if you throw in bricks where there should be actors, you're going to wreck everything. You're drowning your films, Gus, in bad acting. All the long shots of thinking, the super slo-mo shower water spray and splatter shots, the walking shots, the emotional shots are all unsuccessful because the person the audience is supposed to connect with never spoke believably from word one.You can take 2 people and put them in a film where there is nothing but desert and it will only work if you have 2 people who can act, such as what you did with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck in Gerry. Put Gabe Nevins and Jake Miller in Gerry and it would have been painfully unwatchable, because there is NOTHING remotely believable about Nevins or Miller, no matter how fly their hair was. That also includes their looks at the camera that for some reason weren't cut out in editing. How could the same brilliant mind that made Good Will Hunting and Gerry settle for putting crap in his films? What are you doing, man? An audience cannot connect to a film unless the vehicle they use to connect with, the actor, is believable. Kids pretending to act while pretending they aren't, are just pretending...they are NOT acting. Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs would have been more believable and more interesting to watch, not to mention could probably have read better monologue.Please Gus, you are talented and have a gifted vision. I can tell by the cinematography in your films what you are trying to say, the dilemmas your characters are wrought with, and how you try to show how loud life is in the quietest of moments and visa versa. Quit shooting yourself in the foot before the first frame rolls.Sincerely, Laone

Debbie lol This film was only half a movie so I gave it half the stars. I feel I'm being really generous as I believe it's only worth 4 stars but i wanted to say that awesome line :) In reality i can't really review this film bc i genuinely felt like the movie was incomplete. the main actor was good in that he assumed the nonchalant passiveness of a teenager but he didn't emote enough for me. I didn't feel or believe his pain at all. In short the story was good but the whole plot felt underdeveloped. The characters aren't such that you can grow a connection with them or sympathize for them in any way. The whole thing was rush and I wish the audience was given some more context both before and after the climax.

joshua5 I don't know where to begin. For me this is a landmark movie. Yes, skateboarding is central to it. And it inspires a lot of the visuals, music, lighting and camera work. But it isn't a movie about skateboarding tricks or a cameo by your favorite boarder. If you don't understand what I am referring to you won't get this movie. There is a lot of texture, mood and sensory involvement that isn't presented in the standard way. Its not weird, flashy, jarring or artsy, but it is art. If you need a catalyst to reach your own art, it inspires a synchronicity I have rarely experienced. It is a bit cerebral and it leaves me wondering if justice was served.