Palo Alto

Gia Coppola's first film is a winner. I'll admit I made the mistake of reading a few reviews before heading to the theater, all rather shallow and seeming to miss what was important, but they influenced me to the point that I planned to switch films after an hour. But when that hour came, I couldn't leave. I was thoroughly engrossed and invested in the characters. I wanted to know how things worked out for them, and I wasn't disappointed.

Several reviewers have said that it's a good first effort, but it meanders. That it doesn't have much substance. That it has no plot. All wrong, in my opinion. I haven't read James Franco's short stories, upon which this film is based, but I can say that Ms. Coppola has done an excellent job of writing a cohesive screenplay with a good story arc and enough plotting to clearly show that 3 of the main characters -- April, Teddy, and Emily -- learn something important enough from their experiences to change for the better by the end of the film. And the 4th, Fred, is heading for an epiphany, if he can survive long enough to have it. What many have missed is that Ms. Coppola has gotten to the truth here.

Palo Alto accurately captures the teen angst, how hard it is to figure things out, how adults can disappoint/mislead/manipulate us, how we make bad choices, but always with the feeling that we're propelled to do exactly that thing at that moment. High school is not fun. It's something we endure. And it can be an achievement just to get out alive and be heading in a better direction.

It's been ages since I was in high school, and even though this generation is very different than mine, human nature hasn't changed, and the problems haven't changed. I recognized every character, every situation, every bad choice, every consequence. I especially related to "not knowing what to say, so saying nothing." But most important, and I credit Ms. Coppola for this, I really cared about these characters. I even had empathy for one unlikeable character.

That's good writing (credit Franco and Coppola). And it's very good directing, considering the main characters played by Emma Roberts (a standout), Jack Kilmer, Zoe Levin, and Nat Wolff don't have a lot of experience. I like to follow directors whose works say something meaningful about life and honestly earn our emotions. I'll be following Ms. Gia Coppola's work. This is a fine film.

Gia Coppola's Palo Alto feels like a film of Larry Clark's set in a wealthier neighborhood that wants to show that the kind of crime and moral vacuousness that exist in certain impoverished, but the issue at hand is that the film doesn't seem to want to fully commit. While by no means mediocre or not worth seeing, Palo Alto finds itself in the quandary of not always finding a clear balance between its subjects, cycling back and forth, optimistically trying to devote equal time to each characters, but sort of getting lost in a sea of transitions. Even the ending, when it should be finding a way to tie these stories together, it only seems to try to rush and wrap them up in a clean manner without giving us much in the way of connective tissue.

Yet, with that being Palo Alto's biggest issue, I think I can go on happily. The film finds a new concept to explore other than teenage nihilism and debauchery, but the idea that just because teenagers or youths reside in a wealthy community doesn't mean they have lives as vividly-planned out as some may assume. Wealth doesn't equal direction, or even morality, is what I took from the film, and just because the idea of money at ones disposal is instilled at a young age, a clear pathway to success isn't. To build off of the famous saying "the grass isn't always greener on the other side," the grass explored in Palo Alto is the kind hyped to be beautiful because of new lawn-care application but winds up showing a few dry patches and weeds.

The film follows a gaggle of characters living in the wealthy, upper class community of Palo Alto, California, and centers on the day-to- day lives of listless and directionless high school kids. One of the characters we find is April (Emma Roberts), a shy virgin, who finds herself torn between her flirtatious soccer coach Mr. B (James Franco) and a deceptively deep stoner named Teddy (Jack Kilmer). Another soul is Emily (Zoe Levin), a sexually promiscuous girl of the same age, who has sex with both Teddy and his close friend Fred (Nat Wolff), an unpredictable time-bomb of a teenager. The film follows April's relationship with the two key men in her life along with Fred's descent into complete chaos and madness, as well as following numerous high school parties around the neighborhood.

The directress at hand, Gia Coppola, another member of the Coppola dynasty headlined by patriarch Francis Ford, actually shares a lot of the thematic similarities as her filmmaker aunt, Sofia Coppola. Sofia, for years, has made films with the overarching theme of wealth, fame, and alienation, focusing on characters, predominately female, growing up in extremely well-off parts of the world but having unfulfilled tendencies that money cannot buy. This is arguably related to her father being one of the most famous and renowned directors of his time, and a family that found ways to make news in Hollywood, one of the most known cities in the world. This kind of ubiquity and outside hunger for the next big thing from the family like prompted Sofia to frequently feel alone, which lead to films like Somewhere, Marie Antoinette, The Bling Ring, and Lost in Translation, all of which about an outsider's (or outsiders) desire to fit into society.

Gia feels like she's elaborating on this idea by focusing on several teenagers, already tumultuous characters, bombarded by hormones and stimuli they have no idea how to respond to or control, and looking for the basic routes of human gratification through alcohol, sex, or meaningless shindigs. But what occurs when the buzz wears off, the clothes are put back on, and the parties die or are raided? In Palo Alto, many conversations between teenagers and their peers occur as, at the end of the day, a teen's companions are those that can resonate with them the most because of circumstantial similarities.

Such is explored to considerable effect in the film, as characters ramble and converse quite frequently, discussing everything from trivial sexual tendencies of people to the random stupidity teenagers often debate over. While Palo Alto may be messy and often scattershot in its ideas and pacing, it definitely portrays its characters effectively, often devoting time to the inane questions teenagers ask each other and their basic desires for reassurances and empathy. Because these kids come from wealthy areas but have no direction by their parents, one can perhaps call this an outlaw story in suburbia, as these kids are not gridlocked, or even partly- committed, to any particular future, leaving them about as wayward as the cowboy on the trail.

Palo Alto is a film of essences and details rather than long term significance, but such is the teenage way. One will likely remember certain features and events of the film, but find difficultly in defining a theme or an overarching idea grandiose enough to justify itself in a larger sense of time. I applaud it for its portrayal of a demographic I never tire of seeing on screen, and for not only including but emphasizing the random questions teenagers find themselves asking each other ("what would you do if you got in a drunk driving accident?") and their own moronic tendencies, like mixing tequila and vodka because it felt good in the moment.

Starring: Emma Roberts, James Franco, Jack Kilmer, Nat Wolff, and Zoe Levin. Directed by: Gia Coppola.

Franco fantasy. Adults acting like idiots. Teachers sexually assaulting students. It's just handled awkwardly not deftly. Poor dialogue.

Bizarre and slow. And weird.

So this is what it's like to be a teen in high school these days? So basically nothing has change?

Gia Coppola's 1st film has no plot. it's just 100mins of watching Teenagers be teenagers. If you find that interesting than go for it. It does capture the essence of being a teen quite well.

I never read the book it was based on, which was written by James Franco who also has a small role in the film. I know the book is just a collection of short stories which is what the movie feels like, just a collection of short stories.

I would not reject a film just because it had no plot, but I think I'm too far distant from the situation to be that interested in it. Closer to my experience was the movie Kids, which is a lot like this movie, but has a plot to it. I do think that the fact that Palo Alto has no plot makes it a much bolder movie.

This flick is more set up for those who can related to these specific characters, rather than semi-documenting the life of teens. So while I recognize myself in some of the kids and recognize other kids I knew growing up in some of the kids, it was not enough for me.

I think Gia's aunt Sofia is better at that, but she is the more experience film maker and it might take Gia a few more tries to get there.

Don't come looking for plot - our teen years didn't have one either. Like Dazed and Confused before it, Palo Alto throws us into the joys, pains, and emotions of the life of American-suburban adolescence. Though unlike its defacto predecessor, Palo Alto takes a look at this world through a softer, more elegant, more personal lens. The film bounces us around from character to character, all high school students in the titled town. Reckless parties, desperate sexual encounters, jealousies, weed, breaking things, sexually aggressive teachers (James Franco) and, of course, homework. It's all part of the world of Palo Alto. There is no rhyme or reason. Or is there? James Franco (whose book of short stories the film is based on) plays Mr. B, the high school soccer coach, tells his favorite player April that everything has a reason. Maybe he's right. You be the judge. Director Gia Coppola, in her first feature-length effort, works wonders at keeping the characters and the world of Palo Alto authentic. "Glee" exists in a land far, far away from here. Instead, we get an unfiltered look at what it takes to navigate the turbulence of adolescence and find our path to adulthood. It's a painful but beautiful thing.