Elephant

The winner of the top prize at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Gus Van Sant's controversial, remarkably sensitive treatment of the kind of teenage violence that reached a terrible apotheosis with the massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School is his finest work since MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO. The virtually plotless film literally follows several students (the camera trails close behind in long takes) during what seems like an ordinary day, until their lives are suddenly interrupted by gunfire. John (John Robinson) arrives at school with his alcoholic father (Timothy Bottoms), who's too drunk to drive, babbling in the passenger seat. Aspiring photographer Elias (Elias Mc...