
A day in the lives of a group of average teenage high school students. The film follows every character and shows their daily routines. However two of the students plan to do something that the student body won't forget.... (Full plot summary below)
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A day in the lives of a group of average teenage high school students. The film follows every character and shows their daily routines. However two of the students plan to do something that the student body won't forget.
Leave your thoughts about Elephant.
| Film Freak CentralWalter ChawElephant is a document of our etherized condition: not terminal yet, maybe, but close. |
| TheFilmFile.comDustin PutmanOne of the most thought-provoking and important films of the last few years. |
| New YorkerDavid DenbyIt's a daring and original effort, yet so noncommittal--so purposely vague--that it's apt to leave you flummoxed: at once stricken and etherized. |
| Cinemaphile.orgDavid KeyesWatching it, one is left with the cold realization that a story like this had to be made for the screen, and it had to be done so exactly with this level of intensity. |
| Pasadena WeeklyJohn EstherWhereas “Gerry” pushes its protagonists out of time into desolate space, “Elephant” is about precocious time and concentrated structure. |
| Boston GlobeWesley MorrisThe atmosphere is hypo-stylized, vividly generic and worse than real, like a doomy Frederick Wiseman documentary. |
| Shadows on the WallRich ClineThis is one of the most realistic depictions of an American high school ever put on screen, mostly because these are real highschoolers, not 20-something Hollywood actors. |
| Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMakes the Columbine shootings seem both abstract yet more painful and vivid. It also gets you excited all over again about the things movies can do. |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumThe effect is riveting and telling--not always realistic (none of the characters carry cell phones) but often enlightening. |
| Los Angeles TimesManohla DargisWorking with cinematographer Harris Savides and serving as the film's editor, he (Van Sant) has fashioned a visual style and a narrative shape that has the quality of a waking dream, then a nightmare. Rarely do form and content add up with such harmonious grace and power. |