"Paranoid Park" opens a window on how teens think, but the glass is smudged, and the frame has to be propped up with a block of wood.

The movie from director Gus Van Sant is about a teenage skateboarder named Alex (first-time actor Gabe Nevins) who is questioned by police about the death of a security guard not far from Paranoid Park in Portland, Ore.

"Kids that skated there, they'd built the park illegally all by themselves," Alex says of the gritty hangout in his out-of-order scribblings that double as narration. "Train hoppers. Guitar punks. Skate drunks. Throwaway kids."

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'Paranoid Park'

2 1/2 stars = Average
Ratings explained

• Starring: Gabe Nevins, Taylor Momsen.
• Rating: R for some disturbing images, language and sexual content.
• Web site: paranoidpark.co.uk

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He's none of the above. Just a quiet high school kid who likes to skate, whose parents are getting divorced, whose girlfriend (Taylor Momsen) wants more from him, and who is intrigued and spooked by the skaters at the graffiti- and artwork-adorned cement bowl dubbed Paranoid Park.

Van Sant adapts Blake Nelson's novel of the same name, told from the point of view of an unnamed 16-year-old. He manipulates the structure and time element so you're not sure, at first, exactly what the cops are investigating and whether or how deeply Alex was involved.

The world according to Alex and his classmates touches on adults ("Grown-ups do stuff for money, there is no other reason"), teen coupling ("Why give up free sex?") and a cop's clueless reference to the "skate community" ("It's not like we know each other").

Grown-ups try to reach out or to trip up their young suspects, but they're background noise here.

Alex's dad asks all the right questions about school and classes and his younger brother, but he doesn't get any insight or information in return. A teen might want to ask a parent for help, but he lives in a biosphere, where only other teens can provide any comfort or advice.

Van Sant has directed newcomers (Rob Brown in "Finding Forrester," many in "Elephant"), up-and-comers (River Phoenix in "My Own Private Idaho," Matt Damon in "Good Will Hunting") and risk-takers (Vince Vaughn in his "Psycho" remake), and here he casts an unknown in the lead.

Nevins looks like a high school kid, and he is well-practiced at feigning innocence or ignorance, but he hasn't mastered letting the anxiety or pain flicker through that facade. It's an all-or-nothing proposition here, and he has to keep his own counsel, a tough proposition for an acting debut.

"Paranoid Park," opening Friday at the Regent Square Theater, cranks up the anxiety, but it never really lets us inside Alex's head or heart, despite all the words pouring out. He may be disconnected, but so, too often, are we.