Christina Reviews Gus Van Sant's *Elephant*

          Elephant takes place on a normal, typical day at a normal, typical high school. Normal, typical teens are doing normal, typical things. While these students are going on about their daily lives, two teen boys are plotting a school massacre of Columbine proportions.

         This is, in fact, a fictional story that very much resembles the Columbine tragedy. I suppose the point of the movie is that there is no telling what will cause a young person to snap. The movie is like a mishmash of everything you ever heard after the Columbine shooting. But it gives no answers. There is a scene where a group of teenagers are attending a Gay/Straight Alliance type meeting and they are talking about whether or not you can spot a gay person from afar. The conclusion they come to is that, maybe, you can’t. The movie makes a similar point about teen shooters.

         It’s essentially just a day in the life. Only that day happens to be a really bad one. It’s the kind of artsy, fartsy navel-gazing piece I would expect from Gus Van Sant.