Alternatively, William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer graded the film as a C+ and described it as "a movie about its teen hero's inability to express his feelings: to himself, to his parents, to his friends and, unfortunately, to the audience". He criticized the "amateurish" cinematography, the "half-hearted attempts at mystery" and the "wooden" cast. Salon.com's Andrew O'Hehir wrote that Paranoid Parks "highly aestheticized and stylized depictions of teenage life sometimes seem as if they were shot through the wrong end of a telescope".
William Arnold gave the film a C+ grade, stating that it revolves around a teenager's inability to express his emotions to himself, others, or even the audience. He also criticized the cinematography, mystery elements, and acting in the movie. Meanwhile, Andrew O'Hehir described Paranoid Parks as having overly stylized scenes of teenage life.