Another day, yet another movie review. Thanks to self-proclaimed movie queen, Aveena, I've finally got around to watching Elephant. I remember watching its trailer on Apple Trailers and that one of the actors looks oddly like one of those computer animated Final Fantasy characters. It's a pity that this movie wasn't shown here, in Malaysia; I guess our good ol' censorship board thought meek Malaysians would find the film hard to swallow.

Elephant is slow-paced to the extent of testing its audience' patience. It has minimal dialogue and its casts have questionable acting skills. But none of that detracts from my liking the movie. The film begins in what seems to be an uneventful day at school. As we progress, we're being introduced to the "prospective" high-school shooting victims and the would-be perpetrators. They run the usual gamut of teenagers you can identify in your very own shcool; the pretty boy and gal couple (Nate and Carrie), the talented (Eli), the gossip mill operators (Brittany, Jordan and Nicole), and of course, the oft-bullied loner (Alex).

I especially like the cinematography of the film; there are some really neat long shots here. The camera would follow one of the casts as he/she moves from point A to B. Later on in the movie, the same shot would be shown, but from a different perspective with the camera now following another member of the cast (read the sentence again if you can't get the drift). Had first seen the same long-uncut-shots-from-a-different-angle technique being used in Nicholas Cage's Snake Eyes. It was so cool that I was totally blown away; I told myself there and then that if ever I were to make a movie, this would be how it would turn out.

Minor gripes about the movie: There was this scene in which a class of students were discussing issues on homosexuality. As the camera panned around the class, showing some of the students up close, I could not help but notice some really bad acting; some tried not to look directly into the camera but you could see their eyes fixing on the camera for a moment and then trailing away almost abrubtly. But, I've been told that most of the people in the movie aren't professional actors and actresses.

And during the carnage, the nonchalence of some of the students suggested either they didn't know how to react "properly" or it was done intentionally as a satirical take on the Columbine shooting. The indifference could be a result of being too accustomed to high school violence that is rife in the States.

The denouement of the movie isn't quite the usual ending we see in films. This one here sends chill down your spine. There's no gore and can hardly be considered as scary but it does haunt you. Elephant is a must-watch; give it a go and see what I mean.