Elephant chronicles an average day in the life of a Portland, Oregon high school. But this is anything but an ordinary day as there is a school shooting.

Gus Van Sant was inspired by the Columbine High School shooting to make this film.

There’s so much to applaud here. Introducing characters by name on screen, and playing and replaying scenes and scenarios through these different characters, is an excellent device.

I also loved how everyday events are ordinary but hold troubling elements- the alcoholic father, the young teen’s bulimia, the bullying with the victim having to retreat to the bathroom to remove spitballs from his clothing and hair.

There are a couple of elements which I felt were heavy-handed as possible explanations for the shooting and these were the killers playing a shoot-em-up game (I’ve always felt that this being used as a scapegoat is lazy and used as a convenient moral panic in much the same way as the so-called Video Nasties) and the screening of a documentary on the Second World War.

But apart from these possible explanations, Elephant is excellent. Is the school shooting shocking when it happens? Yes, very. And it’s also brilliantly depicted. My blood ran cold.

4 out of 5 stars