Palo Alto, 2013.
Directed by Gia Coppola.
Starring James Franco, Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, Val Kilmer, Nat Wolff and Olivia Crocicchia.
SYNOPSIS:
A tale of two American high schoolers and their path along their awkward romance.
Palo Alto feels like a film that has been out forever, having been shown at several film festivals dating back to June last year. It has been shown theatrically in the US already but has only recently made it across the Atlantic into British cinemas, starting general release early next month. This could have attributed to why by the time I finally sat down and watched Palo Alto it felt so tired and boring.
Set in suburban America we follow April (Emily Roberts) who is torn between a crush on Teddy (Jack Kilmer) and her teacher and soccer coach Mr B (James Franco). We follow April through her decisions and day to day life, going to the various house parties and getting drunk, to her inevitable seduction and falling for the charming Mr B. We also get to follow around Teddy and his volatile best friend Fred as they attend these parties, drink drive and generally behave erratically.
I found the characters unlikable and hard to relate to. Everyone seemed rather down on their lives, depressed and everything was constantly grey. Whilst we look at these characters issues throughout it became more and more clear that they seemed to be upset about nothing. The constant moaning and seeming self-destruction of the characters made the plot feel predictable and stale.
James Franco requested Gia Coppola to direct and she is clearly capable after this as her first feature. Whilst I found the stories dull in and of themselves, this is more due to the stories written by Franco than the way the film is directed and put together. The actors do their best with the material but with the story being dull and see through the performances are like throwing teaspoons of water on a forest fire hoping that’ll save it.
An unfortunately rather dull film, that quickly alienated me and left me counting the minutes until the film would be over. Perhaps next time a James Franco book is made into a movie, I’ll try reading it first rather than wasting my time and money at the cinema.
Flickering Myth Rating: Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Matt Spencer-Skeen – Follow me on Twitter.
Originally published October 1, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
