apologies if it's already been mentioned but just saw Van Sant's Paranoid Park the other day and this could be his best film to date. Erratic though he has been, since he settled on this minimal aesthetic (Gerry, Elephant, Last Days) he's just been incomparable as far as i'm concerned. PP expands on this, retaining amateur actors but pushes the dreaminess using lots of super 8 and a truly eclectic sound design/ soundtrack.
What strikes me is just how he manages to get inside of kids heads- unpatronising, unsentimental and totally un-larry clarke whose Kids must be the worst film of all time.
Anyway, it's not unlike Antonioni, the 'plot' kind of not being all that relevant and it's not even a character study as such as alot of feelings are left ambiguous- it just somehow manages to catch a momentary teenage state of existence that couldn't be less hollywood- ie, less dramatic despite the enormity of the situation.
sorry, bit of a rambling post...